


our veins are busy (but my heart's in atrophy).

by paleromantic



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Aaron and Andrew get on better, Andrew is big gay, Angst, Blood, Cliffhangers, Death, Death scene in chapter 1, Drake can choke, F/M, Fluff, Fuck Lola Malcolm, Happy Ending, Kissing, M/M, Minimal Moriyamas, Renee and Andrew are BFFs, Reverse Big Bang Challenge, Romantic Tension, Shadowhunter AU, Violence, Violence from the onset, slowburn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-26
Updated: 2019-04-13
Packaged: 2019-11-08 19:22:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 27,792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17987138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paleromantic/pseuds/paleromantic
Summary: Andrew Doe saw things that no one else could see, he was pretty sure.He had been seeing things for the majority of his life, ever since he could remember really, but it was starting to happen more and more now that he was thirteen. He had tried to tell his foster parents when he was younger, but it hadn’t been the best idea. Parents didn’t want crazy children after all, and Andrew always found himself back in the system sooner or later.





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi y'all! This is my fic for the Reverse Big Bang 2018, a huge thank you to Gabriella for organising it!
> 
> This fic comes with some beautiful art that I'll be embedding later on, all of which you can find [here](https://andreil-minyasten.tumblr.com/post/183719367831/art-for-the-amazing-lovegrantaire-s-shadowhunter)
> 
> Thank you for reading, and make sure you check out Deya's art! <3

Andrew Doe saw things that no one else could see, he was pretty sure.

He had been seeing things for the majority of his life, ever since he could remember really, but it was starting to happen more and more now that he was thirteen. He had tried to tell his foster parents when he was younger, but it hadn’t been the best idea. Parents didn’t want crazy children after all, and Andrew always found himself back in the system sooner or later.

He was pretty sure that none of the other children saw the things he did, though. Where Andrew saw fairies in the bushes and vampires lurking in the dark when he walked home, the other children saw nothing at all. He ignored them, and they seemed to ignore him too. He was probably better off that way. He wasn’t even sure if what he was seeing was real most of the time, though, because they always seemed to vanish soon after they noticed him watching them. Maybe they were right, maybe he _was_ crazy.

He lived a relatively normal life other than that, as far as foster kids went. He had bounced from home to home for most of his life, but he had just recently settled into his new one and he had a very good feeling about it. His new foster mother, Cass, worked as a nurse in the nearby hospital so they had enough money to live on comfortably, and her husband Richard worked in a hardware store on the other side of town. They both worked mostly during the day, so they were home most nights to have dinner and help Andrew with his homework. He didn’t need it, but if he sometimes pretended that he didn’t understand things just so that Cass would help him with it, that was nobody’s business but his own.

They had a son, too, but Andrew hadn’t met him yet. He was a Marine who was deployed overseas, and Cass seemed to be extremely proud of him. She had talked to Andrew about him often, excited for him to meet his new older brother when he came home for his holidays.

Andrew had been excited too, at first.

He had just turned fourteen when Drake came home for the first time. Cass had taken extra shifts during the previous week in order to have the day off, so they had been waiting at home when Drake arrived.

The house had smelled amazing, since Andrew had helped Cass to bake a cake. It was one of Drake’s favourite recipes. He had gotten flour everywhere in his eagerness to help, and even though he had been ready to run to his bedroom, Cass didn’t even get mad. She just helped him to clean it all, and kissed him on the forehead.

Andrew couldn’t remember ever being treated like that before, and Andrew remembered _everything_.

He hadn’t ever been a big fan of carrot cake because it was a little less sweet that he liked his cakes to be, but he had made it anyway since Cass had told him how it had always been Drake’s favourite. Cass had looked so happy that he had offered to help, how could he say no? They had worked well together, to the music coming from Richard’s old plug-in radio. Cass had been happy, so happy that she had taught Andrew how too dance while they had waited for the cake to cool. It had been one of the best days Andrew had ever had.

Drake had arrived with little fanfare, despite Cass’s bright and loud joy. He was tall, and broad, and he had been wearing simple jeans and a clean shirt, his dog tags lying on his chest and showing where he had been.

“This is Andrew Joseph, Drake. He’s your new little brother!” Cass smiled and ruffled Andrew’s hair, making him roll his eyes and push her arms away. Drake just nodded a smiled, before holding his hand out for Andrew to shake.

“Nice to meet you, AJ.” Drake smiled, predatory, and Andrew felt a chill go up his spine for seemingly no reason. “I think we’ll get along just fine, don’t you?”

The moment passed, and Cass plated up the cake before pouring them all cups of coffee, hot chocolate with marshmallows for Andrew. They spent the night laughing together after Richard came home from work, regaling Andrew with childhood stories of Drake. Andrew hadn’t cared, not really, but he’d never felt so involved in a family before.

He wanted it, he wanted to laugh about his own childhood stories with them eventually. He wanted to make Cass smile like that, if he could. He wanted it so badly it hurt, to feel like he finally belonged somewhere that wanted him back.

He had drifted off in the corner as it started to get later in the night, only starting awake when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

“C’mon, Andrew, it’s late.” Cass smiled and helped him up. “You have school in the morning, you need your sleep.”

Andrew nodded and yawned, putting his cutlery into the sink before making his way upstairs. Cass kissed him goodnight, as she did every night, and he fell asleep to the sounds of his new family talking together downstairs.

 

Drake didn’t sneak into his room until almost three weeks later, when Cass and Richard had had a few drinks, before turning in early. Andrew had been in his room for most of the evening, doing homework and studying for his history pop quiz on the next week. Looking back on it, Andrew was pretty sure that the man had been trying to lure him into a false sense of security, waiting for Andrew’s guard to be down so that he could strike more easily.

Luckily for Andrew, his guard was rarely down.

 

He woke up to the sound of his bedroom door creaking open, searching out any signs of a threat in the darkness. There was nothing, until he saw the sliver of light from the open door growing wider as someone pushed it open. Quietly, he pushed himself up to a half sitting position.

“AJ?” Andrew relaxed, but only marginally. It hadn’t been that long after Andrew had decided to go to bed; maybe Cass had sent Drake up to get him for something. Maybe there was nothing to worry about, for once.

That was, until he saw the glint of teeth as the man passed the light, and his heart kicked into overdrive. He swallowed silently, and then slid his hand under the pillow, waiting for the cold edge of the razor blade that he had taped to the wall beside his bed. He hadn’t used it since he had been taken in by Cass, hadn’t felt the need to- It had simple been a reassurance of sorts, an ironic safety blanket. Andrew had the feeling that it would be more than that tonight. Drake wasn’t the first man to find his way to Andrew’s bed, but if Andrew had anything to do with it then he would be the last.

“AJ, wake up…” Drake’s voice was almost hoarse, different to how its usual smooth tone. It made Andrew’s stomach drop, and then clench uncomfortably.

“I’m awake.” The words left him in a rush, barely catching enough air to become words. He backed up on the sheets a little, and held what was left of his breath.

“You know, Cass always wanted another child…” Drake chuckled, and then shook his head. “Thought that she could raise a little _family_.”

Andrew didn’t answer, but Drake didn’t seem to expect him to.

“It’s too bad, really. Imagine just how devastated she’ll be when she finds you in the morning.”

Finally, Andrew found his voice again. “What are you going to do to me?”

That seemed to be exactly what Drake was hoping that he’d ask. He flashed a smile, his teeth sharp and white in the dark, and Andrew swallowed hard. He must have just been seeing things again, no one’s teeth were pointed like that. “Whatever the hell I want, kid.”

Then, he lunged.

The small knife the man was carrying caught Andrew on the arm when he turned, slashing the skin open there and making Andrew gasp in pain. Tears gathered in the corners of his eyes and the pain made it hard to think, but somehow Andrew found that he had the presence of mind to lash out with his own razor in hand, nicking at the man’s face and making him hiss. Andrew’s victory was short lived, though, when Drake chuckled quietly and drew back.

“Is that all you’ve got, kid? Pathetic.”

The man forced Andrew down, bringing a knee up to rest on his thigh, effectively pinning him against the mattress. Andrew could feel the panic seizing his body, and he did his best to fight through it. He couldn’t allow himself to freeze this time, he had to do something.

He screamed, or at least he would have if Drake hadn’t slammed an iron grip down over his mouth, smothering the sound. Drake reared his head back, his sharp teeth catching the light again. Andrew could hardly breathe, but he could feel some sort of instinct inside of him starting to take over. There was a struggle, but after he dug his razor blade into the man’s arm again, he dropped his knife onto the sheet. Andrew grabbed it, and from there it was easy to shift his weight over and use his momentum to bury the knife into Drake’s neck. It felt like second nature, even though that wasn’t possible. It wasn’t as if he went around _killing_ people all the time.

The man choked, hunching over as blood started to spurt out of his neck, staining his clothes and spattering Andrew in the face, warm and metallic. Andrew pushed him away using his legs, making him fall onto the ground where he continued to writhe, choking on his own blood and reaching for anything that could help him. There was nothing, and Andrew just stared as he reached desperately for something to pull himself. He caught his breath, not daring to take his eyes off of the dying man as he struggled through his final breaths, before starting to shudder.

Andrew took a deep breath, and then slid off the bed to look at the body. Drake’s teeth were still extended, his canines sharp and threatening looking as he twitched on the ground. Vampire.

Andrew had read plenty of books on vampires, his ‘gift’ making him oddly fascinated with the supernatural, to the point that he had read almost every book on the subject at the local libraries near his last couple of foster homes. His foster parents at the time had thought that it was a stupid waste of time, and he had almost started to agree with them, but it turned out that it was useful after all. They had, as much as a book could, prepared him for this exact scenario.

He pulled the knife out, wincing at the sound of metal against bone, and then forced the knife down into his heart, causing him to hiss and then go still. He covered the corpse with a sheet then, sick of looking at it. He was pretty sure that he was in shock, but he didn’t want to be faced with a dead body when it wore off.

After that, he shed his own bloodstained clothes, ignoring the throbbing pain that was making it hard to stay steady. He wrapped a clean pair of boxers around his arm before forcing it into a long sleeve, getting dressed as fast as he could. His hands wouldn’t stop shaking, and he dropped his backpack more than once as he shoved everything that he needed into it. He couldn’t stay there, not now, not after what had just happened. He didn’t know where he would go, but anywhere that wasn’t that house seemed like a pretty good option.

Cass was going to _hate_ him.

He shoved the window open, ignoring the cold and throwing his bag out, soon climbing out after it. He risked one last glance behind him, swallowing bile at the sight of Drake’s form, half covered by the sheet. The blood was starting to soak through, now. _Cass was going to hate him._

That didn’t matter anymore, though. Not now.

He didn’t know the town well but he ran the path to the nearby school, following it into the centre of town. It was too late at night for anything to be open, for anyone to be out and about, but he figured that if he could find a place to sleep, then he could figure out the rest in the morning.

But, like all of Andrew’s plans it seemed, that quickly went to shit when out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a figure across the road, by the entrance to the park. Fear turned the blood in Andrew’s veins to ice, but he just averted his eyes and kept his head up.

The figure was watching him, he was pretty sure. He could see their eyes, almost glowing in the dark.

Andrew was seeing things. He had to be seeing things. None of this was happening, he would wake up in the morning from the nightmare and Cass would be right there, ready to hug him and tell him that everything was okay. He was sure of it.

He was less sure when the figure started to move towards him, and even less sure when he could see them grinning at them, their teeth sharp and their eyes bright.

“Hey, kid.”

Andrew swallowed, and then broke into a sprint. It was a losing battle, but he couldn’t just do nothing. Still, his stomach sank when he felt the iron grip of the figure on his wrist, yanking him to a halt.

“Ooh, a fighter. We’ll have a lot of fun with you.”

Andrew struggled, even as they were dragging him away.

* * *

It wasn’t often that Aaron woke up with a vampire in his room, so as soon as he realised that he wasn’t alone it was only natural for him to reach for the seraph blade he kept under his pillow. Then, he heard a familiar sounding chuckle and groaned, letting his head thump down onto the pillow.

“Fuck sake, Renee. Can’t you knock?”

Renee shrugged, and then smiled. “You sleep like the dead. Now, come on, there’s an emergency.”

“Can’t you call the Institute? I _just_ got back.”

“I feel like this is something you’re going to want to see.”

Renee turned her back as Aaron got ready to leave, shoving two seraph blades into his waistband and then turning to her.

“Where are we going, then?”

Renee pressed her lips together. “The main coven has kidnapped a child, and I need your help to get him out of there.”

Aaron groaned. “You definitely should have called the Institute.”

“Aaron.”

He groaned, and then grabbed his jacket. “I’m coming, I’m coming. Lead the way then, Walker.”

 

The nearest vampire lair was a twenty minute walk, but Renee had much longer legs than Aaron had and they made it in fifteen. Aaron had to rush himself to keep up with her, and he grumbled the whole way there as he almost skipped to catch her.

“You said they took a kid? Shouldn’t he be dead by now?” Aaron took out his stele and tugged his sleeve up, quickly marking himself before shoving it back into his pocket. “Vamps aren’t exactly known for their goodwill. No offence, Ren.”

Renee chuckled and then put a hand up onto the windowsill. “None taken. We can sneak in a window, I know where they’re keeping him.”

She gave Aaron a leg up, and waited as he wedged the window open and wiggled through, forcing it open the rest of the way. She didn’t need the hand that Aaron gave her as she climbed in, but she took it nevertheless and pulled herself up into the room that Aaron was waiting in. It was empty and bare, probably just one of many unused rooms in this part of the building. Renee didn’t tend to wander when she was there, so she didn’t really know.

Aaron brushed himself off and then looked around. “Alright, after you, Walker.”

The hallways were silent as they crept through them, and Aaron stopped dead when he saw Renee turn her head sharply. When she relaxed, he started to breathe again.

“He’s down here.”

Aaron huffed and followed her. “I still don’t understand why you didn’t just call the Institute. This is Wymack’s job, Walker.”

“Oh trust me, you’re going to want to see this.”

Aaron shook his head, and then drew a quick unlocking rune on the shut door in front of them. It clicked open quietly, and Renee led the way inside through another hall before stopping at an open door and smiling gently at whoever she saw inside.

“Hey, Andrew. We’re gonna get you out of here, okay?”

Aaron heard ‘Andrew’ grind out something in return, and he pushed past Renee to look inside before freezing.

“Walker, what the fuck.”

In front of him, a kid around the same age as he was sat chained to the floor like Renee had described to him. His ankle was raw where the chain was wrapped around it, and his face was dirty and bloodied. He looked angry, but as soon as he got a good look at Aaron’s face it turned more to confusion, his pale, young face screwing up as he looked over at Renee again.

“Is this a joke?” The kid, Andrew, frowned. “He looks just like me.”

“See, Aaron? I told you that you’d want to see this.”

Aaron was still staring at the boy, and he shook his head to snap himself out of it, before crouching to unlock the chains and help him up. Andrew was a lot skinnier than him- Aaron wondered when was the last time that the kid had gotten a decent meal.

His mother had a lot to answer for, it seemed.

“I’m taking him back to the Institute, I can tell Wymack to get the sanctuary ready if you want to come.”

Andrew reached out to grip Renee’s arm tightly, making the decision for her. “She’s coming with us.”

Renee chuckled lightly and then nodded. “Of course, Andrew. You’ll be safe with them, though, I promise.”

“Fuck that, you’re not leaving me alone with them.” Andrew took a step forward and then stumbled, catching hold of Renee again and making a pained noise. “Ow.”

Aaron rolled his eyes and offered his own side, the both of them holding Andrew up between them. “Let’s just get you to the Institute, we can deal with this from there.”

* * *

_Don’t look back, don’t slow down, and don’t trust anyone._

Neil forced down another few gulps of water before tossing the bottle away, and then started on patching himself up. His mother would have laughed at him, losing a fight like that, but when it was four on one there was no way that he could have come out of it without at least a couple of scratches.

Still, this was a lot worse than a couple of scratches. His mother wouldn’t have let it get this bad. She’d have kicked the shit out of him for being such a wimp, if she was there.

He pressed his hand to his side again and it came away bloody, wet and tacky to the touch. It hurt, but he just gritted his teeth and pressed down again as he forced himself to his feet. He was pretty sure that he was going into shock, if he was being honest with himself. He’d felt it a couple of times before, but never in a situation when healing wasn’t at least nearby. He needed to find somewhere to rest, so that he could finally just heal himself without burning out completely. He knew that the high warlock, Allison Reynolds, was living somewhere nearby, so all he had to do was find her and hope that she was feeling charitable enough to take him in and let him rest.

He staggered as he reached the bottom of the building she was supposed to be living in, and put his weight against the wall to catch his breath. His vision was starting to go blurry at the edges, but he pushed himself to keep going, keep going, _don’t slow down_.

He jammed the elevator call button, smearing blood across the indented surface and then going back to his position against the wall. The elevator ride was short, and the distant jingle of pleasant elevator music was vaguely registering in Neil’s ears, but Neil couldn’t focus on it over the rushing of blood in his ears and the dizziness that was making it hard to stay upright.

He reached the warlock’s door with only seconds to spare before he passed out, knocking weakly. There were footsteps inside, and then the door opened to reveal Allison Reynolds, wearing a silk robe and some fluffy bunny slippers. She raised an eyebrow at the sight in front of her, and Neil struggled not to vomit on her carpet, instead forcing words out before the darkness claimed him.

“Help me, please. Help me.”

 

He woke up to the press of a cool cloth to his forehead.

“Oh good, you’re awake. Stupid bastard.” He blinked and then squinted up at the source of the voice.

Allison Reynolds was a tall woman, blonde, and pretty in a way that was intimidating even to a man that didn’t swing. Even more intimidating, though, was the way that she was wielding the cloth in her hand. Neil groaned, and then tried to sit up, before being forced back down.

“Don’t fucking move, you’re lucky you’re _alive_ right now. Don’t push it.” She dabbed at his forehead again, and then turned to fetch him a glass of water, making him drink it steadily. “What’s your name, kid?”

Neil thought back to the most recent papers he had gotten. “Neil Josten, my name is Neil Josten. You’re Allison Reynolds.”

Allison grinned. “My reputation precedes me, I see.”

Neil grimaced and finally sat up, reaching for more water. “It does. Thank you for helping me, Ms. Reynolds.”

“Please, call me Allison. I could hardly let you die on my doorstep, could I? Imagine the _tabloids_ , Neil. Bad press can do wreck on the reputation.”

Neil scratched his nose. “Still, you didn’t have to. I’ll be on my way, though.”

“You can barely walk, sit the hell down.” Allison handed him a protein bar, which he sniffed warily before taking a bite out of. “Yeah, I wasted four hours making sure you’d be fine just to put poison on a _granola bar_. You got me.”

He reddened, ashamed, and then took another bite. “Thank you.”

Allison sat down and crossed her legs, watching him. “What happened to you?”

Neil finished his bar and then fiddled with the wrapper, crinkling the plastic between his fingers. “Just… Ran into the wrong type of people. Didn’t work out too well for me.”

“Yeah, no _shit_. Who were they?”

Neil knew exactly who they were, had had their names drilled into his head from the time he had left his father’s house until his mother had left him. They were his father’s men, the same men that had been around at their house for dinners and parties, and the murders that Neil had only been introduced to when he was a little older. Back when he had thought his father to be human. Back when he had thought _himself_ to be human. “It doesn’t matter.”

“Neil.”

“They probably think that I’m dead now anyways.”

Allison sighed, and then got up again. “Sleep more, okay? We can talk when you’re back to your full strength.”

Neil would have argued normally, but he was tired. He hadn’t slept in a bed for a long time, too, and the softness of the mattress was calling to him, promising a good night’s sleep.

“Thanks.” His voice cracked and he swallowed, closing his eyes and turning onto his side while ignoring the aching pain in his ribs. He heard Allison move around, and allowed himself to fall asleep. She hadn’t let him down already, what was one more night’s sleep? It wasn’t as if he’d be staying with her, after all.

He’d be gone before the week was out.


	2. Chapter 2

_Four years later._

 

“Master, everything is ready if you would like to get started.”

Ichirou Moriyama turned his head as the woman who had spoken bowed, and then watched as she left the room. She was one of his favourites, only half mundane but completely aware of her role in society as far as working was concerned. Her place, of course, being servanthood. He got up to follow her, and immediately the men that he had centred around him moved with him, going with him into the next room, where the main event was waiting.

The portal-like space inside the protective circle was a crimson red, although Ichirou supposed that Riko had always been one with a flair for the dramatic. Ideally, that sort of nonsense would have been eradicated in childhood, but Tetsuji had gone soft on the children that he was charged to train.

And look where it had gotten them.

Riko bowed his head when he saw Ichirou approach, and then allowed his lips to play out in a wide smile. “Master, we’re waiting on your command.”

Ichirou held out a hand, and took the book that was offered to him, opening to the marked page and lowering his gaze to it as he began to speak. As he spoke, Riko repeated his words back to him, causing the lights to dim, and the murky depths of the portal to start to churn.

When the chant ended, there was silence for five seconds, the air seeming to squeeze out of the room.

Then, a voice.

“ _Who has summoned me?_ ”

Ichirou kept his voice level. “Ichirou Moriyama.”

The shape of a man started to emerge, and in a blink, Nathan Wesninski was standing in front of them, a bloody cleaver held in his hand. “Ichirou Moriyama. What do you hope to gain from this?”

“We will make the Shadowhunters kneel, and those sycophantic mutts and bloodsuckers who have allied themselves with them.”

Nathan laughed, all teeth and tearing metal. “And why, pray tell, would I help you with that?”

Ichirou closed the book in his hands, handed it to the man beside him and then brought his hands together. He smiled, and then twisted the ring on his finger.

“You will help us, because we have found your son, and we have a plan to return him to you.”

* * *

“You need to move faster, Andrew.”

Andrew growled, and lashed out again, the tip of his blade grazing the skin on the outside of Renee’s arm as she darted away from him, grabbing his arm and forcing him to drop it. His arm reflexively curled up in pain and he grunted, before grabbing a handful of her hair and dragging her down to the floor. She might have been faster than him, and stronger thanks to her non-human strength, but he had more experience where groundwork was involved, and it wasn’t long before he had her pinned to the ground. There was a slight buzzing in his head from where Renee had gotten a few digs in, and he felt it before he saw it- his nose was starting to bleed.

Renee’s gaze sharpened, and he rubbed at his nose with the back of his hand, giving her an opening to flip them over and pin him down hard, knocking all of the air out of his lungs.

“Fuck.” He let his head fall back against the floor, and then whined. “I was trying to be nice, Ren.”

Renee smirked. “Nice guys don’t win fights though, do they Minyard?”

Andrew recognised the words- he had said them to Renee, during their first sparring match, just a few weeks after he had arrived at the Institute with Aaron and Renee. That had been four years ago now, but that match had been one of the first- and the few- that Andrew had won, much to his dismay.

“Fuck you.”

Renee laughed, clear and bright as a bell. “Ten minutes, and then we can go again?”

Andrew nodded and then tried to sit up, groaned, and then laid back down. “Fifteen.”

“Fine, but only because it was your birthday recently.” Renee propped herself up on her elbows, tilting her head back and closing her eyes. Her roots were still perfect- the perks of being undead, apparently. Andrew still had to bleach his every couple of weeks, to keep up the blond. Life was never fair for the Minyards, it seemed.

“You’re a saint.” Andrew kept his face deadpan.

Renee laughed again. “Not quite.”

Andrew tilted his head to frown at her, and he was rewarded with a pat on the arm. He closed his eyes after that, letting each breath come slow and easy as he enjoyed the break. It ended all too soon, though, and before long Renee was tapping his shoulder again.

“Come on, lazybones.”

“Lazybones- fuck off.” Andrew huffed and then adjusted his hand wraps, before letting her pull him up to a standing position. “I’m ready when you are.”

Renee smiled, razor sharp, and then lunged forward.

Andrew dodged, and brought his arms up around her to knock her over onto the ground, laughing wildly as she blinked up at him, dazed. “Guess I got a second wind?”

Renee snorted and then tried her best to roll them over like she did before, but Andrew moved with her, staying firmly on top.

“What, did you give up?” He smirked when she snarled in frustration, before freezing at the sound of a throat clearing from the doorway. He turned his head to look over, and then rolled his eyes. “Oh, it’s you.”

Aaron looked between them, and then shook his head. “Get changed, Wymack wants you both in the main room. Now.”

The Palmetto Institute was different to other Institutes insofar as the structure of it, since the ‘sanctuary’ seemed to extend far beyond that of the other Institutes. It had happened soon after Andrew’s arrival, since he didn’t seem to want to get too far away from Renee at all, too distrusting of the rest of them except for Aaron. As a compromise of sorts, as well as out of a genuine wish to be more inclusive, Wymack had gotten permission (or at least that was what he had said to the rest of them) to extend the amount of rooms that vampires could go into to allow Renee the comfort of having more than one room that she was allowed in. She had a bedroom in there, not that she slept, and also a training room that her and Andrew frequented. There was also the main room, though, which was the room that Wymack usually used to talk to the people who lived there- at least if he wanted Andrew to show up.

Andrew sighed, and then got up. “Give us ten minutes, we’ll be there.”

Aaron nodded, and then left, and Renee smiled. “That was civil.”

Andrew pulled his shirt off, swapping his armbands for fresher ones and then grabbing a towel. “Thanks, _mom_.”

“You’re welcome, sweetie.” Renee laughed and then fixed her hair in the mirror. “I’m going to go and get a drink, we can meet up before we go to the kitchen?”

“Go nuts, bloodsucker. I need to shower anyways.”

Renee left, so silently that Andrew wouldn’t have noticed if he hadn’t known it was happening, and he grabbed a bottle of water before walking to the showers. He was not looking forward to this meeting- God only knew what Wymack was going to tell them.

 

The main room was busy when Andrew arrived, Renee trailing right behind him- Nicky, Aaron and Kevin sat around the room, with Katelyn and two people hovering nearby, standing closer to Wymack than to the door where Andrew was. Andrew recognised one of them- Allison Reynolds, the High Warlock of South Carolina, and more importantly, Renee’s girlfriend. He felt Renee light up beside him, and he rolled his eyes. Awful.

“Wymack.” He said, by way of greeting, and then walked closer to them, looking at the stranger. “Who’s this?”

The stranger was pretty, Andrew noticed, the kind of pretty that was hard to hide. He seemed to be trying his best to, though, with a glamour that Andrew could see through easily, and some shitty box dye that definitely wasn’t what a proper warlock would have used. And he was a warlock, Andrew could see it from a mile off. The glamour had given him mousey brown hair, that curled lazily as if he had showered and not bothered to dry it with a hair dryer- Andrew could only imagine how much that had irked Reynolds. The ends were still damp, and they curled around his ears. Andrew had the urge to push it back out of his face, but he mentally smacked that thought down as soon as he had thought it. It had given him darker eyes too, a muddy brown/green that, even though it wasn’t real, wasn’t _awful_ to look at.

Andrew distantly allowed himself to hope that the glamour was making him look better than he really did. He didn’t think that the Angel would be _that_ cruel.

Allison touched the man’s arm gently, and then smiled. “This is Neil Josten, he’ll be staying with you for a while.”

Andrew raised a brow. “He will.”

Wymack cut in before Allison could speak again. “Yes, Andrew. He will.”

Andrew clicked his tongue, and then turned his attention back to the stranger- Neil, apparently. He was dressed casually- too casual for it not to be on purpose. He had a grey hoodie, with a white shirt inside and bootcut blue jeans. He looked generic, the kind of person who would blend into a crowd easily. By design, Andrew was sure. He watched him, watched the man’s eyes dart around the room to take all of them in, finding the exits and making a note of them. There was only one thing that stopped him from looking ordinary though- his warlock mark, horns that he or Reynolds had glamoured enough not to garner too much mundane attention. Now that he was safely inside the Institute though, he slowly started to let that glamour fade.

Andrew scoffed. “Why is he staying with us, then? Tired of living in luxury with the High Princess?”

Allison gave him a flat look, and then looked at Wymack, who nodded. “He’s been staying with me for a long time, but he’s not safe at my place anymore. He’s safer with you, here.”

Andrew pressed his lips together into a thin line. “Safe from _what_ , exactly?”

Neil glanced to Kevin, where he was sitting on the couch, and Andrew felt the pieces click into place, speaking before Allison could answer him. “The Moriyamas, of course.”

Kevin paled, looking over to Andrew and then at his father, before bringing his gaze back to Neil. “What?”

Andrew was persistent. “You’re on the run from the Moriyamas, aren’t you?”

Neil nodded grimly, and Andrew turned a grin on Wymack. “Get him the hell out of here, Wymack.”

Wymack frowned. “We’re not turning him away, Andrew.”

“Don’t you think one Moriyama stray is enough? Or are you starting a collection?”

Kevin and Neil winced almost identically; it would have been funny if Andrew had been one for jokes. Wymack rolled his eyes though, and Allison was glaring daggers at him.

“Neil needs our help, Andrew. We’re Shadowhunters, and we help everyone who needs it.”

Andrew felt Renee’s hand on his shoulder, and he turned to look at her. She shook her head and smiled. “Neil has been living with Allison for years now, Andrew. I know him.”

Andrew severely doubted that any of them knew him particularly well, but he huffed and conceded the point. “Fine, fine. But I’m watching you.”

Neil seemed to find that funny, and a slight smile tugged at his lips. “Okay.”

Wymack cleared his throat. “Okay, now that that’s over and done with. Anyone hungry? I’m ordering pizza.”

The rest of them eagerly shot up, but Andrew hung behind, watching Neil. Neil didn’t move either, and their eyes met briefly, making Neil grimace.

“Wymack, save me some pineapple and ham slices.” Andrew looked over in time to catch the man’s nod, before walking over to where Neil was standing. “I’m showing you to your room.”

Neil swallowed, and Andrew watched the bob of his throat with mild interest.

However much trouble Josten really turned out to be, at least he wouldn’t be boring. Andrew was sick of being bored.

* * *

As soon as they were out of earshot of the others, Andrew went for the jugular, keeping his tone bright and happy.

“So, what are you hiding, Neil Josten?” He saw the man bristle and grinned. “What, did you think a shitty glamour and a dye job would help you? Maybe around the others, but not me.”

Neil swallowed, and then twisted a hand in his sleeve. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. Allison already told you everything.”

A laugh bubbled up in Andrew’s chest, and he reached over to push Neil against the wall, knocking his head back against the wall and keeping him held there. “Do I look stupid to you? Be honest, Neil.”

Neil grunted, and then shook his head. “Let me go, asshole.”

“Why are you lying to me, then? The Moriyamas wouldn’t come looking for a dull nobody named Neil Josten.” Andrew pushed him harder against the wall, and then allowed himself a second to take Neil’s appearance in from that distance before pulling away. “Now, let’s try this again. What are you hiding?”

Neil brushed off his hoodie, and then started to walk again. “Last I checked, it was none of your business.”

“Let’s make one thing clear, Josten; _anything_ related to the Moriyamas is my business.”

Neil let out a breath. “Because of Kevin.”

“You know him.” Andrew wasn’t asking a question, but Neil answered anyway.

“We were children together.” Neil smiled, and a lesser man would have empathised with him. “Now look at us.”

“Save the pity party for someone who cares, Josten. Who are you, really?”

“I’m no one.”

“Give me a name.”

Neil swallowed, and then crossed his arms. “Kevin really trusts you?”

“Who do you think got him away from the Moriyamas? It definitely wasn’t him.”

Neil seemed to mentally weigh his options, and Andrew saw him reach his conclusion. “Abram. It’s what my mother called me.”

Andrew didn’t miss the past tense there, but he rolled the word around his tongue, humming. “Abram. It’s a lot more honest than Neil, don’t you think?”

Neil grimaced. “You’re insufferable.”

“Oh, I do try. Now, here we are.” Andrew stopped outside the door and pushed it open. “Home, sweet prison.”

Neil walked in and took the duffel back off his back, putting it into one of the drawers and locking it magically. Andrew made a mental note to figure out how to unlock it, later. The man scanned the room, taking in the barred windows, and the dressed bed, the en-suite bathroom.

“Is it up to your standards?” Andrew crossed his arms. “I hope not.”

Neil rolled his eyes. “I’ve slept in worse places.”

Andrew took that unusual piece of honesty, and he filed it away for later. “It’s your lucky day, then.”

Neil turned, and looked at him. “I’m going to shower. Tell Allison that I’ll send her a fire message later.”

Andrew took the dismissal easily, knowing that he’d be back to bother the man again later. “Goodnight then, Abram. Don’t let the vampires bite.”

Neil snorted, and closed the door behind him, calling out. “Don’t worry about checking on me!”

Andrew snorted. As if he’d be letting the man out of his sight until the problem was solved. As he made his way down the hallway again, he allowed his thoughts to wander a little, considering the situation at hand. He was reasonably sure that Josten wasn’t a threat- as annoying as she was, Reynolds was good at reading people and she wouldn’t bring Renee into harms way like that.

That still left the question of what exactly Neil _was_ , though. He was on the run from the Moriyamas, which would allow him to slot himself in easily with Kevin since they had a common goal. Andrew supposed that it wouldn’t be that different really, keeping an eye on both of them. He was pretty sure that he would be keeping an eye on Neil regardless though, annoyingly. It would be fine.

Andrew groaned and then shoved his hands into his pockets. He’d invite Neil to Columbia during the week, take him out for a drink, and then it’d be clear whether or not Neil would be able to fit into the group.

He probably wouldn’t.

* * *

The room was small, but it was clean, dry, and warm and that was more than Neil had expected, really. Once Andrew had left him alone, he put his bag down on the bed and pulled out his belongings to separate them into his separate drawers. When he had first arrived at Allison’s, he hadn’t had much more than the clothes on his back, and even then they had been ripped to shreds. Allison had been very generous, with both her time and her money when she had provided him with a wardrobe of clothes, and luxuries, things that he had never even _dreamed_ of having. He sorted those clothes out now, filling the drawers provided and then sorting his other belongings out- his magical supplies, his shoes and underwear. They were far from full, but it looked a lot better without so many empty drawers and shelves.

The room was a lot less daunting when he could see his belongings lying around. He wondered what the others’ rooms were like- Andrew probably kept his neat, he seemed the type. Maybe he kept weapons everywhere too, never wanting to be caught off guard when he was alone in there. Neil could empathise with that, since he had already stowed various weapons around the room. His mother had always told him not to rely too much on his magic, had drilled it into him so many times that it was almost a second nature to use his powers now, rather than a first option. Although, he supposed, his mother had been wrong about a lot of things.

He sat down on the bed then, and rubbed his face with his hand. The Shadowhunters didn’t want him there, that much was clear. He didn’t blame them- they probably had more than enough trouble without him drawing the Moriyamas on them.

Maybe Andrew was right, and he needed to leave before things started to get bad. He was pretty sure that Andrew would kill him if he got anyone hurt.

He shook those thoughts out of his head. He was safe in the institute, the Moriyamas couldn’t get him or anyone else as long as they stayed inside and used their common sense. It would all be _fine_.

Andrew would kick him out long before he let anyone get hurt because of him, and Neil took an odd sort of solace in that fact. It wasn’t a safety net, but it was damage control, and Neil felt like he needed damage control a lot more than a soft place to land these days.

He imagined telling Andrew that, imagined the man laughing in his face. Annoyingly, the thought didn’t make him mad.

He pulled his hoodie off, and dropped it on the floor by the bed, before grimacing as he stretched. He figured that he might as well get some sleep in before he was forced to settle into the Shadowhunter’s crazy sleeping schedules- although, maybe they’d just let him relax in the mornings and join in later in the day. He wasn’t sure, so he settled on catching as many hours as his could before he was woken up again.

There was one thing that he knew for certain though, he thought as he fell asleep. He wasn’t going to be bored while he was staying with the Shadowhunters. Tired, maybe, annoyed, _definitely_ as far as Andrew was concerned, but certainly not bored.

* * *

Andrew wasn’t sure what he had done in life to deserve this, but like most things he was almost sure that Renee had had something to do with it.

“You want to spar with me.”

Neil huffed, and then nodded. “Yes, is that a problem?”

Andrew sent off a prayer to whoever might have been listening, and simultaneously cursed the day that Renee was born. “There are other people here for you to spar with, you know. I’m sure Kevin would wet himself if you offered.”

“I don’t _want_ to spar with anyone else.”

Andrew stood up from where he had been sitting on the bed, and grabbed his training shirt, shedding the one he was wearing before pulling the new one on. Neil looked away dutifully, and Andrew wasn’t sure whether to be happy or not about that. He settled on happy.

“Fine, but no magic.”

Neil scoffed. “I can handle myself without magic, you know.”

“Can you?” Andrew smirked, and then pushed him back gently to grab his bag. “We’ll see about that.”

Neil rolled his eyes, but followed Andrew through the hall that led to the training room. He hadn’t been there for long but he was already settling in nicely, which was mostly thanks to the tours that Nicky and Wymack had given him and that Andrew had stayed far away from. He was a fast learner, it seemed. Andrew hadn’t seen him get lost once since he had arrived, and he showed avid interest in the artwork and books that he saw on the walls of the hall and the library that he had spent a lot of time in.

Andrew hated it, so much so that he had been visiting the library more often than usual just to keep an eye on him. That was the _only_ reason, despite what Renee had muttered when she was out of arms reach.

The training room was well lit, and the wall to wall mirror on the far back wall seemed to make Neil uncomfortable as he looked into it. It was stupid- what _didn’t_ the man have issues with? Andrew didn’t like the look on his face, though, so he stepped in front of him, blocking his view of himself.

“You have enough problems, runaway. Don’t add mirrors to the list.”

Neil scowled, but then nodded and cracked his knuckles. “So, how do you and Renee usually do this?”

Andrew pushed his sleeves up, a grin tugging at his lips. “No magic, no weapons. Other than that? Do whatever you want, runaway.”

“Don’t call me that.” Neil nodded though, and he pulled off the baggy hoodie that he was wearing, pulling his shirt up with it unknowingly and exposing his chest. Andrew looked away almost immediately- but that did almost nothing to stop the image of the battleground that was Neil’s chest searing itself into Andrew’s memory.

He swallowed hard, and then shook his head, forcing his gaze to remain away from the man. Liar or not, Neil had been through a lot worse than the Moriyamas before, and he had come out relatively in one piece. Andrew had no doubt that he could do it again, if he had to.

Neil raised an eyebrow at him, crossing his scarred arms. “Are we doing this or not?”

“I was waiting on you, Josten.” He allowed his gaze to wander a little, and then cleared his throat. “Are we doing this or what?”

Neil grinned then, dangerous, and darted forward try and land a hit on Andrew’s abdomen. Andrew, however, was used to Renee and dodged it fairly easily, retaliating by grabbing the man’s arm and twisting it, pushing him against the wall, hard. Neil groaned and gritted his teeth, before laughing shakily and changing his grip on Andrew’s arm, switching their positions and sweeping Andrew’s legs out from under him, following him to the ground. Neil had clearly fought before, and he carried himself like someone who had won more than his fair share of fights.

The fight was dirty and neither of them held back, so by the time that they both started to tire Andrew had already split his lip badly enough to drip down his jaw, and one of Neil’s eyes was bloodshot, the area around it tender and sore looking. It felt like scratching an itch, as far as Andrew was concerned; Renee was always very careful never to draw blood. Andrew trusted her with his life, that much she knew, but she always said that she would prefer to eliminate the risk altogether. It had been a while since Andrew had gotten to really fight anyone, and he was surprised by just how _satisfying_ it was.

The sight of a bloodied and panting Neil wasn’t exactly a sight for sore eyes either.

It wasn’t long after that when exhaustion made Andrew sluggish, and that was when Neil struck, knocking the man to the floor with a thump and pinning him down by the wrists. Andrew felt all the air in his lungs leave them in one breath, and he stared up at the other man.

“Better luck next time, Andrew.”

Andrew rolled his eyes, and then groaned, trying to move under him. “Fuck you, I didn’t tap. Did Reynolds teach you how to fight while you were living with her?”

“Does it matter?” Neil smirked, and then grabbed a clean rag. “No, she didn’t.”

Andrew grunted, and tried to shove the man off unsuccessfully. Neil’s smile grew smug, and he leaned down to wipe the blood off Andrew’s face, which was dripping steadily down to his jaw, taking care not to hurt him too badly as he cleaned him. Andrew held his breath.

“Are you alright? I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

Andrew didn’t sit up, even when Neil moved off him. “Yeah you did, but it’s fine. Get me my stele?”

Neil nodded, and after rifling through Andrew’s bag quickly he came back with the stele, putting it into Andrew’s hand so that he could trace the familiar shape of an _iratze_ into his arm, feeling the pain start to leach away almost instantaneously.

Neil seemed to be doing something similar, and Andrew could see that the skin around his eye was already starting to return to normal, his red knuckles going back to their pale, scarred original state.

“That was fun.” Andrew dragged his gaze back up to Neil’s face when he spoke, and surprised himself by giving a nod. It made Neil grin brightly.

“Yeah.” Andrew undid his hand wraps, and let them fall into a pile on the floor beside him. It was therapeutic, really, the process of both getting ready, and taking off his gear during training; Bee, his mentor of sorts, had often compared it to meditation. Andrew hadn’t been inclined to disagree.

“Maybe we could spar again soon?” Neil sounded hopeful.

“I won’t go so easy on you, next time.”

Neil snorted, and then scoffed. “Easy? You lost, Andrew.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Neil laughed, and Andrew tore his eyes away from his tilted back head, the line of his neck and the crinkles by his eyes. He was being stupid, that was _all_. Nothing would come of this stupid… whatever it was, the kid was trouble and that was that.

“We should probably shower.”

Neil nodded and got up, offering a hand to Andrew. Probably against his better judgement, Andrew took it- Neil’s hand was warm and softer than the state of his arms would lead one to believe. Neil pulled him up into a standing position, and then pulled away with a smile. “See you later?”

Andrew hummed, a non-committal noise at best, but Neil seemed to take it as a confirmation, grabbing his discarded hoodie before leaving the room. Andrew watched him go, and as soon as the coast was clear he reached for his phone to text Renee. He hated Neil for being attractive, but at least physical attraction was all it was.

It wasn’t as if he was attracted to Neil’s sharp personality or anything.

With a groan, he thumped his head against the wall gently. He was so _fucked_.


	3. Chapter 3

Neil had adapted to all different kinds of conditions in his life, but _nothing_ had prepared him for an extremely determined Nicky with a credit card, it seemed. He hadn’t even known what it meant when, earlier in the week, Andrew had told him that he would be going with them somewhere on Friday.

Neil had had no intentions of going, but that didn’t seem to matter to Nicky. Nicky had been so excited to show him around, to buy him nice clothes- Neil hadn’t been able to get a word in edgeways to say no.

His mother would have been furious.

“Oh Neil, you look so good!” He grinned and then looked to the side. “Aaron, doesn’t he look good?”

Aaron looked up from the book he was reading, and gave Neil a half-hearted once over. “Yeah, he looks fine.”

“Fine!?” Nicky pressed a hand to his heart and scoffed. “He’s practically _edible_ , you poor, poor straight man.”

Neil shifted, uncomfortable, and splayed a hand over the jeans he was wearing. They fit well, snug in a way that Neil wasn’t really used to them being but that Nicky insisted was a good thing. They were paired with a dark red flannel that Nicky had given him, along with his own white shirt underneath. He had a suspicion that Nicky had planned out the outfit with the t-shirt in mind, to afford him at least a little comfort.

It was appreciated, the little bit of familiarity.

“Where are we even going?” He pushed his sleeves up, and then crossed his arms. Andrew hadn’t exactly been forthcoming on any information. “Andrew didn’t tell me.”

Nicky hummed and reached out to fix his collar, fussing over him until Aaron snapped at him to leave Neil alone. “We’re going dancing, there’s a Downworlder club called Eden’s in the town we used to live in.”

Neil grimaced. “Is that safe?”

“With Andrew there? Yeah.” Nicky sounded so sure of himself, Neil could help but raise an eyebrow. It just made the other man laugh. “Andrew’s a lot to get used to, but he would never let any of us get hurt. He’d rather die.”

Neil glanced at Aaron, but Aaron had the same trust written clearly on his face. He almost shook his head; he couldn’t imagine having that kind of trust in _anyone_. Even Allison was held at arm’s reach, as much as he could. The last person that he had truly trusted was his mother, and that had- that hadn’t ended well.

He supposed, though, that if he had to put his trust in someone… it would probably be Andrew. He wasn’t sure if the thought calmed his nerves or only amplified them.

He nodded slowly. “Yeah, okay. And I’m wearing this?”

Nicky nodded and grinned. “You look amazing, thank Andrew for me.”

Aaron choked on his water, and Neil frowned. “Why would I thank Andrew?”

Nicky shook his head and smiled. “Never mind. Now, wanna get changed back into your normal clothes? We need to keep those clean.”

Neil nodded and shrugged off the flannel, folding it and putting it on the chair and picking up the clothes that he had been wearing before. Nicky leaned down and pressed a kiss to his cheek- Neil didn’t flinch away this time, catching himself at the last moment.

“We’ll be in the kitchen, bothering Kevin. Feel free to join us!”

The two of them left, and Neil pulled his shirt over his head in one swift motion, replacing it with the hoodie that he had brought with him in his duffel bag. He replaced his jeans with sweatpants too, tying his sneakers and folding the new clothes, putting them back into the bag carefully and then putting the bag on the floor. He had a couple of hours before he had to get ready again, it wouldn’t do him any harm to go for a run while he had the chance. Maybe he’d be able to work off some of the nervous energy that he had built up during the week.

He double checked his laces, and then grabbed the phone that Allison had all but forced on him, shoving it into his pocket. If anyone needed anything, they could call him anyway. He doubted that they would, though.

********************

The only clue that Renee was in the room with him that Andrew picked up on was a slight creak of the door, and Andrew sighed. She had gone away for a couple of days to hunt, coming back earlier in the day looking like her usual, radiant self.

“Andrew.” Renee sat on his bed and picked up a pile of his laundry, moving it over. “I missed you.”

Andrew rolled his eyes and turned on his chair, pulling a leg up to hug it against his chest, resting his chin on his knee. They hadn’t gotten a chance to talk privately since Renee had gotten back- Reynolds had effectively monopolised her time- which was fair, he supposed, since they had been dating for over a year, but Andrew was still bitter. That was _his_ best friend. “Yeah, you too. Had to spar with Aaron for the past few days. Even sparred with Neil, once or twice.”

Renee laughed, and raised an eyebrow. “Oh, I’m sorry. That must have been hard for you.”

“It _was_.”

“And how is Neil doing? Are you guys getting on any better?”

Andrew paused, the knife he had been playing with balanced on his hand. “What? Who cares about Josten? He’s annoying, that’s all.”

Renee hummed, a non-committal noise. “He’s kind of attractive, don’t you think? I think that you guys would get on rather well.”

Andrew looked at her, unimpressed. “I didn’t think he’d be to your taste, Ren. He’s a little male, don’t you think?”

She grinned. “But you don’t disagree, then.”

 _Fuck_. Renee was the worst, when she put her mind to it. “He’s not a threat.”

“You’re dodging.”

“ _You’re_ irritating.”

Renee stood, looking smug. Andrew probably would have started a fight, if he thought that he could win it. Since he couldn’t, he just gritted his teeth.

“You know, you’re allowed to make friends, Drew. He’s your type, too.”

Andrew huffed. “I already have a Moriyama cast-off, what would I do with two? And I don’t have a type, I don’t _do_ -”

Renee didn’t answer, she just patted his arm gently. “Yeah, yeah, you don’t do feelings. Do you want to spar then?”

“God, yes. I thought you’d never ask.” Andrew crackled his knuckles and grabbed his gear bag.

“Maybe we should ask _Neil_ to join us.”

Andrew gritted his teeth, and ignored Renee’s smug smile. “I really hate you sometimes.”

“You lie, sometimes.” Renee dodged his half-hearted swat, and then walked to the door. “Race you to the training room?”

Andrew rolled his eyes. “You’ll win.”

“That’s defeatist of you, Drew. Reading a little too much Russian History, are we?”

“Fuck you.”

Renee grinned and then started the familiar walk down to their shared training room, shrugging off her cardigan and reaching for her hand wraps. “So, will Neil be one of yours?”

Andrew raised an eyebrow. “I wasn’t aware that I had my own club. Do we have nametags? Membership cards?”

“You’re a shitty liar and a shitty comedian, you know. It doesn’t suit you.” She wrapped her hands and then turned to help Andrew with his. “Will he?”

Andrew kept his eyes pointedly on his hands when he spoke. “Maybe. He has… potential.”

“You mean your protective spidey-senses are tingling?” Renee smirked. “Except now you _also_ want to-”

“We are _not_ talking about this, Ren.”

Renee snorted, but she let the matter drop. “Okay, let’s not talk about how you wanna kiss the new kid. Weapons or no?”

“No.” Andrew stretched out his back and then winced as he leaned over to stretch more- he was still a little bruised from training during the week, but he just shook it off. “You ready?”

“Are _you_?”

Andrew rolled his eyes. “Will you ever get tired of rubbing your wins in my face?”

“Nope.” Renee popped the ‘p’ and then raised her hands. “On your call.”

Andrew grinned, and then raised his to match. “Let’s go.”

 

* * *

 

 

Neil had never been in a room this packed in his life, and he was _beyond_ uncomfortable. Nicky helped, standing close to his back and keeping the worst of the crowds from bumping into him as he walked, but he could still feel them. His glamour was firmly in place, a far as he could tell, though, and it would fool most of the people in there, unless they knew what to look for. _Especially_ in the dark.

He could see Kevin, Aaron and Andrew ahead of them, leading them over to where the rest of their friends were waiting. Katelyn got up as they reached the table, letting Aaron slide into the seat before seating herself on his lap and picking up her drink again. Renee and Allison were deep in conversation,

“You guys took your time. Andrew, you’re getting drinks.”

“I always get drinks.” Andrew rolled his eyes and then grabbed Neil by the wrist. “You’re coming with me.”

Neil followed him to the bar, where Andrew rattled off a drink order longer than Neil could keep track of. The pretty faerie girl behind the bar seemed to have no problem with it though, as she just nodded and set a tray down on the counter, setting off to make the drinks with a surprising level of ease. Neil had worked as a bartender in a town he had stayed in after his mother had died, just for something to do. He had hated it, though.

Andrew turned to Neil and smirked at his expression. “Not getting cold feet, are we?”

“That’s a lot of alcohol.”

“Don’t worry, you won’t have to drink any. It’s mostly Nicky, Aaron, and Kevin.”

Neil raised an eyebrow. “And you let them? You seem too protective to indulge early-stages alcoholism.”

“I don’t control them, they make their own choices. Even the stupid ones, and there are plenty of those.”

The tray was loaded quickly, and Andrew let Neil carry it back to the table, dodging drunk people and trying his best not to spill it all over his shirt. He just barely managed, and he frowned to himself as people immediately started to divide them up, passing them around the table. Andrew took his own whiskey and Coke, but nothing else; that was something, at least.

“Who else is coming?” Nicky threw back a pretty blue shot, and then turned to Andrew. “Or is it just us tonight?”

Andrew took a sip, and then hummed. “Knox and Moreau will be coming, for Kevin.”

Nicky grinned and then looked over at Kevin. “Aww, your boyfriends are coming to cheer you up!”

Kevin scowled at him, nursing his gin, but his cheeks darkened in a blush and he turned away. Andrew’s expression didn’t change, though, so Neil ignored them all. He didn’t care much for the people who came in and out of the Institute- they were nice, sure, but Neil had never really had the time for making friends with people. The only one that he talked to more than passing greetings was Andrew and they weren’t- they weren’t _friends_. Neil didn’t think that they were friends, anyway.

Maybe he could have time now, though. When everything was over, when the Moriyamas were done toying with him. Maybe he could be friends with Andrew, after everything.

The music was making Neil feel like he was in a bubble, and he could feel his stomach starting to clench because of the sensation of being oblivious to his surroundings. He had marked the exits as he had come in, looked at as many people as possible when he got the chance, but there were so many people going in and out that it was a pointless exercise. He knew that since he had decided to trust Andrew as much as he could that there wasn’t really much of a point to be as anxious as he was, but he didn’t have anywhere else to channel the energy.

Maybe Nicky would persuade him to dance, later. He couldn’t see it happening, though. He kept to himself as the others had fun, mostly, keeping his back to the wall as much as he could as he watched his new friends throw themselves into getting drunk eagerly, all except for Andrew and Renee. Jean and Jeremy arrived before long too, introducing themselves to Neil as they slotted themselves in on either side of Kevin, allowing him to lean on them and happily catching up to the others.

Neil hardly needed the introduction that Nicky provided; it had been quite the shock to him and his mother when Jean had fled from the Moriyamas, injuring Riko in the process. Neil had actually been pretty jealous, when it had all happened, but be couldn’t help but be glad now that the man had gotten away, that he had found happiness far away from faeries, and demons, and the Moriyamas. Jean didn’t seem to recognise him, though, so he let the matter rest. It had been over a decade since he had seen the man after all, a decade since Neil had set foot on a faerie court.

He let the matter rest though, playing with the tab on his soda can absentmindedly. There wasn’t any point in dragging those memories back, he was fairly sure that Jean had had more than enough suffering for one lifetime.

Kevin looked happy, anyway.

A hand on his arm startled him out of his thoughts, and he looked over at Katelyn.

“You okay, sweetie?”

Neil blinked, and then offered her a smile. “Yes, I’m okay, just tired.”

Katelyn frowned, and then patted his hand, turning her head. “Andrew, Neil’s not feeling well.”

Neil sighed, and then moved his head to meet Andrew’s narrowed eyes. “I’m _fine_.”

Andrew raised an eyebrow. “I’m going out for a smoke anyway, come on.”

Neil deliberated for a few seconds. He wasn’t sure if leaving the rest at the table alone was safe, since they were all on their way to wasted. Andrew seemed to read his mind though, and Neil found himself having to fight a smile.

“They’ll be fine, and we’ll be back inside in a few minutes.”

Finally, Neil got up and left the table, following Andrew through the crowd and stepping out into the night air in the back alley. Andrew didn’t wait for him, walking over closer to the bins and then leaning against the wall, taking a packet of cigarettes out of his pocket and hitting the bottom of the box off the heel of his hand. At Neil’s confused look, he shrugged.

“Makes them burn slower.”

Neil nodded, and then pushed his sleeves up to his elbows, rolling them so that they’d stay in place, when he looked back up, he caught Andrew looking at his forearms.

“You- You have tattoos.” Andrew sounded odd, and he cleared his throat.

Neil looked back down, and smiled softly. “Uh, yeah, I do.”

They had been Allison’s idea, mostly, to cover the scars that littered Neil’s upper body with tattoos, but it had been Neil’s idea to do it the mundane way, finding a tattoo artist and actually sitting for them rather than letting Allison put them on him. Only the worst ones on his chest and back were covered, since it wasn’t displayed as often, but his arms were covered in them, two full sleeves that Neil loved.

Andrew seemed to force his gaze up to Neil’s face, and he lit the cigarette before bringing it to his lips. “Why?”

“Why should I tell you?”

Andrew took a long drag, before exhaling. “Truth for a truth, you can take a turn next.”

“They’re to cover scars, from my parents.”

Andrew nodded once, and then straightened his jacket. he decided to volunteer a truth, if only to stop Neil from asking a question yet. “I bleach my hair.”

Neil smothered a laugh. “You- Why?”

Andrew rolled his eyes. “Why, don’t you think I make a good blond?”

“No, I- That’s-” Neil felt himself blush, and he coughed to cover it. He had no idea why he was blushing- Andrew was attractive, that was no reason to be embarrassed. “I just didn’t know that you bleached it.”

Andrew licked his lips, brought the cigarette to his lips again. “I thought that you’d be able to spot a shitty dye-job, runaway.”

Neil’s hand immediately went to his roots, and Andrew laughed. “What, you think I didn’t notice? That’s not even your real eye colour, is it? Who _are_ you?”

Neil took a step away, widening his eyes. He had to _leave_ , he had to-

Andrew laughed again, popping the bubble of panic in Neil’s chest. “Relax, I won’t tell anyone. I just can’t seem to figure you out.”

Neil’s voice choked out a little. “I’m not a math problem.”

Andrew waved him off, taking another drag and blowing the smoke in his face. “I’ll still solve you. What’s colour are your eyes?”

“I don’t owe you anything.”

“Don’t you trust me, Abram? Consider it a truth, I’ll owe you one after.”

Neil grimaced, but waved a hand anyways. He could feel the colours changing, and he blinked a couple times before looking at Andrew, all icy blue and auburn, everything his mother had never wanted him to be.

Andrew widened his eyes marginally, accidentally inhaling too deeply and breaking off to cough. Neil reached for him, pausing until Andrew nodded to thump his back, until he man took a ragged breath and grimaced.

“Are you okay?”

Andrew groaned. “Don’t ask stupid questions.”

“You owe me a truth.”

Andrew shook his head, dropping his cigarette and crushing it under his shoes. “Go away, I hate you.”

Neil snorted. “Because I’m trouble?”

“That’s the _least_ of my problems.” Andrew’s voice was quiet, and Neil turned to look at him.

“You don’t hate me.”

Andrew worked his jaw, drawing Neil’s attention to the line of it, the sharp bone there. He swallowed, and waited for Andrew to speak.

“No, I don’t.”

Neil let the words hang for a few seconds, then then held out a hand. “Give me a cigarette.”

Andrew handed one over, and Neil turned it over in his fingers before putting it between his lips. “A light?”

Andrew stepped forward, into Neil’s personal space, and produced an old beat-up Zippo from his pocket, holding it up. Neil felt the back of his shirt pressing against the brick of the wall behind him as Andrew backed him into it, but he tilted his head to allow Andrew to light his cigarette. When it had caught, he took a slow drag, and then blew it out slowly, letting it almost trickle out of his mouth.

Andrew didn’t step away, though, just watching him, his eyes dark in the half-lit alley. Neil felt his stomach threaten to flip, and he bit his lip gently. Andrew glanced down then and leaned forward, until his breath grazed against Neil’s lips.

Neil’s breathing caught, and then-

“Where are you guys?” Nicky’s voice was slurred and overly giggly from the alcohol, and Andrew sprang away from him like he’d been burned. Neil let out a breath that he didn’t know he had been holding, and he turned towards Nicky.

“We’re over here, Nicky.”

Nicky grinned brightly. “You’ve gotta come back in, Kevin and Aaron are doing shots and it’s _hilarious_.”

Neil looked at his cigarette, slowly burning its way down to the filter, and a laugh bubbled up inside him. Andrew looked unsteady too, but he just looked over at Nicky and nodded.

Nicky disappeared back into the club, and Andrew seemed to shake himself, before starting towards the door. “Come on then, Josten.”

Neil swallowed. “Andrew-”

“ _Now_ , Josten.”

Neil sighed, and then followed the man back into the darkness of the room, dropping his cigarette and crushing it underfoot as he went.

* * *

 

 

“Everything is going to plan, Master.”

Riko’s voice was almost gleeful, and he raised the book in his hand before putting it down on the desk. “Nathaniel is with those Shadowhunters, David Wymack’s pet projects, but we’ve been looking at ways to lure him out of the little sanctuary he’s found.”

Ichirou raised an eyebrow, and gestured to his men, who let Riko step forward. “And? Explain yourself. It’s only been two weeks, do you really think that they’ll let him out of the Institute now?”

Riko smiled, and the light from the candles and the floating faerie lights lining the room catching on the ragged scar on his face and making his face look almost monstrous. “He’s starting to care for the little Shadowhunters, considering them his friends. What if we-”

“Kidnapped one of the Shadowhunters? _Now_ you’re thinking more like a Moriyama.”

Riko beamed at the praise, and then brought his hands together. “Nicholas Hemmick leaves the Institute every couple of days to visit his mundane boyfriend, who lives an hour away. We can easily intercept him, and send a ransom to Palmetto. Nathaniel will volunteer to meet us, to keep the rest of them safe.”

Ichirou considered it, and then nodded slowly. “So it’s a plan, then. Bring Hemmick to us, and we’ll prepare for Nathaniel.”

Riko nodded, and then bowed his head, before turning and leaving the room. Ichirou hummed, and then turned his head when a voice rang.

“My son?”

Nathan’s voice was sharp, like broken glass. “My son is coming here?”

Ichirou smiled. “We’ll have your son to you in no time, Wesninski, and then we can start our partnership.”

Nathan didn’t speak again, seemingly having said enough for the day. The lights returned to normal and, in the silence of his private chambers, Ichirou started to cement his plans.


	4. Chapter 4

“Nicky, _please_ tell me that you’ve seen _Star Wars_.”

Nicky rolled his eyes at the desperation in his boyfriend’s voice and zipped up his coat loudly. “You mean those weird space movies that Aaron watches? They looked pretty boring.”

“ _Nicky_.”

He laughed and then switched his phone to his other ear. The walk to the bus stop from the Institute was usually fine since the weather was usually pretty warm, but it was deep in the winter now and the cold made Nicky feel like he was going to shiver right out of his skin. The warmth of Erik’s voice helped, though, and the fact that Erik was just a short ride away once he actually got on the bus.

“Fine, fine, we can watch it. We could marathon it like we did with those elf movies.”

“ _The Lord of the Rings_?” Nicky could hear how dismayed he sounded, and he giggled into the phone.

“Yeah, that one. Want me to pick up snacks on the way from the bus, then?”

Erik hummed, and Nicky could hear that he was doing laundry; he could hear the quiet his of the iron as he was no doubt making all of his shirts for work look pristine. Erik worked as an accountant in Columbia, working much-too-long days in much-too-tight suits that made Nicky hate the hour that it took for him to get to him, hate the much-too-short weekends that they managed to steal together when their plans aligned.

“I love you.”

Erik’s laugh was soft and breathy; Nicky almost missed it. “I love you too, dear. Popcorn?”

“And chocolate.” Nicky confirmed, and then paused, looking behind him. He could have sworn that he had heard someone moving just behind him.

He must have gone quiet for too long then- Erik sounded worried when he spoke again. “Nicky? Are you okay?”

“I- I thought that I heard something. It was probably nothing.”

“Is the bus there?” There was definitely worry in his boyfriend’s voice now, and Nicky sighed.

“Not yet.”

There was another noise from behind him then, and Nicky turned around. He had definitely seen someone this time. “Fuck, Erik…”

He looked for whoever he had seen, but there just wasn’t anything there. Maybe he was just tired- he had stayed up late the previous night patrolling with Kevin. He was almost laughing at himself when he turned around to keep walking towards the bus stop until he caught sight of the person standing right in front of him.

“Fuck.”

He dropped the phone as the man lashed out at him, managing to block his first strike and even get in one of his own, catching the man in the jaw with a well-placed punch. He wasn’t the best fighter, by any means. He wasn’t terrible- he could hold his own against most demons, and even Aaron and Kevin, but whoever this stranger was quickly becoming too much for him and he grimaced as the man forced him to the floor. He felt him pressing a cloth to his face, and he gritted his teeth and held his breath for as long as he could before he was forced to inhale.

He heard Erik’s voice coming from the phone nearby, and he wished desperately that he could reach it to soothe the man. As it was, it was all that he could do to hold his breath as much as he could, stop himself from inhaling. Soon enough though, the burn in his lungs became too much to handle, and he took a deep, choking breath that filled his head with clouds.

He whimpered as he felt the man drag him upwards, reached for his phone even though he already knew that his limb control was quickly escaping him.

“Don’t struggle, Shadowhunter.” The man’s voice was rough and slightly muffled by the half-mask that he was wearing. Nicky did anyways, though it was weak.

He was vaguely aware of a car pulling up, and he closed his eyes. It was easy, then, to let himself give way to unconsciousness.

God, Andrew was going to be so _angry_ with him.

 

* * *

 

 

Andrew probably shouldn’t have been surprised when he heard Neil making his way across the roof to where he was sitting, his legs dangling out over the 30-foot drop; the warlock had an extremely annoying habit of showing up when Andrew was thinking about him. _Speak of the devil and he shall appear_ , Renee would have teased him.

Renee was a real asshole sometimes.

“Andrew.” Neil’s greeting was soft, his footsteps just barely audible even in the silence.

“Josten. Did you get lost?”

“Wanted to talk to you.” Neil sat down beside him, looking out and taking in the view. It would have been beautiful if Andrew cared, and he watched with mild interest as Neil’s eyes widened, his lips parting slightly in awe. The mountains were visible from where they were, a vast expanse of houses and fields, a sleepy looking river. They paled in comparison to the way the sunset was looking in Neil’s eyes, though. God, Andrew sounded like a fucking rom-com.

“I’m listening.”

“Eden’s.” It wasn’t a question, and Andrew wasn’t about to pretend that it was. He simply acknowledged it with a hum, and then took another drag of his cigarette. Beside him, Neil made a low noise of frustration.

“We can’t just not talk about it, Andrew.”

“Ask me something, then.”

“What- Why did you…” Neil sighed, and then reached over, plucking the cigarette from between Andrew’s fingers and bringing it to his own lips, blowing the smoke out slowly and flicking the ash off the end, letting it fall down into the night. Andrew’s traitorous heart gave a lurch, and he forced himself to look away when Neil spoke again. “You were going to kiss me.”

There wasn’t really much of a point in denying it. “I was.”

“I thought you hated me.” Neil sounded confused, but Andrew refused to look at him.

“That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t blow you.” Andrew’s voice caught just slightly at the end, betraying the nerves that were threatening to bubble up. “Don’t worry, it won’t happen again.”

Neil’s voice was unsteady. “Andrew.”

Andrew took a breath, counted to five. Maybe Bee wasn’t a crackpot after all. He turned to face the man.

Neil was flushed pink with surprise, his expression open and hopeful and everything that Andrew had never allowed himself to think about. He had always been a glutton for punishment, though.

“Why not?” Neil reached out, placed his hand closer to where Andrew’s was.

The answer came easily to Andrew; it was well practiced, after all.  “You are a pipedream, Josten.”

Neil pressed his lips together, and then shook his head. “I don’t have to be.”

“Don’t.” Andrew shook his head, and stole his cigarette back. “I learned not to get my hopes up a long time ago.”

He’d barely inhaled when Neil took what was left of his cigarette back, crushing it on the concrete between them. Ash smudged on his fingertips where it made contact.

“Andrew.”

Andrew looked up from where he had been watching Neil’s hands, and he swallowed hard. Neil was leaning forward now, a mirror image of déjà vu, and Andrew held his breath.

The universe didn’t seem to share their plans, though, because the door to the roof slammed open to reveal a distinctly panicked looking Katelyn.

Neil flinched, and Andrew frowned, moving to get to his feet. Katelyn never sought him out, not unless something was wrong.

“What is it?”

Katelyn looked between them, but wisely didn’t say anything. Thankfully, she simply got to the point.

“Andrew, Nicky is missing.”

 

* * *

 

 

Nicky’s head hurt, but that was the least of his problems.

He had no idea how long it had been since he had been taken- but at least now he knew who had taken him. Riko fucking Moriyama, of all people.

 He grimaced and sat up, looking up at the man who was sitting at a desk nearby, poring studiously over an open book. Riko could have been attractive, probably, if it weren’t for the huge, jagged scar that marred his features and the fact that he was a fucking freak.

Nicky cleared his throat, not able to do much else due to the tape that was put over his mouth, stopping him from opening it. Riko startled slightly, and looked over.

“Ah, you’re awake.”

Nicky rolled his eyes. _Obviously_.

Riko turned in the chair and then smirked. “Don’t worry, little Shadowhunter. We won’t hurt you, as long as we get what we want.”

He leaned down and pulled the tape off of Nicky’s mouth, making Nicky whimper slightly from the pain of it. Nicky grimaced, and then shook his head. “Neil won’t come for me, he barely tolerates me.”

Riko shook his head. “No, no. Nathaniel might not care about you, but the others do, correct?”

Everything slid into place, and Nicky rocked forward, knocking Riko onto his back with a headbutt. “Leave Andrew out of this you rich bastard-”

His element of surprise only lasted a couple of seconds before people burst in to restrain him again, but Nicky did his best to struggle and fight them off, shouting all the while. “Leave Andrew and the others alone you evil pricks, Neil will _never_ come to you guys.”

Riko laughed, without pity. His nose had started to bleed. “Oh, he will.”

Nicky growled as his mouth was taped again, and then cried out as he was yanked backwards, out of the room.

 

* * *

 

 

Neil had never had to attend a Shadowhunter ‘family meeting’ before- not since the one where he had been introduced to them, anyways. He assumed that they weren’t always such a sombre affair- then again, he assumed that usually they didn’t have anything to do with a missing family member.

The ransom note had arrived just a couple of hours earlier, it seemed. That was only an hour or so after Nicky had left the house, or so Aaron had told them. He had been the last to see the man before he left, and he looked to be the most shaken by his disappearance, although Andrew was giving him a run for his money in that department. Aaron sat in the corner with Katelyn, worrying his bottom lip between his teeth and picking at his nails while Katelyn rubbed his back gently in slow, soothing circles. Andrew, though, had been alternating between angrily tapping the handle of one of his daggers on the counter top and cracking his knuckles. Neil supposed that it should have made him uneasy, the rage that was pouring out of Andrew in waves, but all he wanted to do was to go to him, to help somehow.

He wasn’t sure that Andrew would appreciate that, though.

He walked over to the counter and picked up the ransom note again, scanning it. It was the Moriyamas, of _course_ it was them. They were pissed off that Neil had gotten away from them again, and now they had dragged Nicky into the middle of it. Neil hated that he had put anyone in danger, especially one of the people who had worked so hard for Neil to feel comfortable with them.

“Well, I have to go.” Neil put the sheet down and then looked up at the others; He wasn’t the first person to speak since they had gathered, but he was the first one to speak in a while. Andrew’s gaze snapped to him immediately, as did most of the others. “They want me, so I’ll go to make sure they send Nicky back.”

Wymack looked conflicted. “Neil-”

Andrew interrupted both of them, his voice barely concealing how frustrated he was. “And if they don’t give you back? What then, Josten?”

“We can figure that out when we get there, Andrew. What’s important is that they don’t hurt Nicky.” Neil sighed, and then looked at Wymack. “You can trust me to go, and make sure that they give him back.”

“Then I’m going too.” Andrew crossed his arms.

Multiple people spoke at once, then- Aaron, Neil, Renee and Wymack all seemed to be of the same mind. “No.”

Andrew raised an eyebrow, and Neil cleared his throat to explain.

“The Moriyamas know you, they know that you hate them. We don’t want anything to get too hostile.”

Wymack came to his defence. “Neil is right. We don’t want anything to escalate too quickly.”

A muscle in Andrew’s jaw twitched and he looked ready to argue with them, but Renee made him pause with a gentle arm touch. “I’ll go with Neil, Andrew.”

They looked at each other, and Neil could almost see the silent conversation that they were having between them. He wondered what they had to say; Surely Andrew trusted Renee to keep Nicky safe, and to come home safe herself. Andrew trusted Renee deeply, after all. Neil knew the story- Allison had told him. It had only happened a couple of weeks before Neil had arrived on Allison’s doorstep, after all.

Andrew didn’t look happy about it, but after a minute or two he nodded. “Fine. Renee and Neil go, then.”

Just as Wymack looked ready to finalise that, a voice that Neil didn’t expect to speak up made itself known.

“I’ll go too.”

Wymack paused, and then turned to face Kevin. “You- What?”

Kevin swallowed, and then glanced at Andrew before sitting up straighter and meeting Wymack’s eyes steadily. “I know them, I know how they work. I can help, if they decide to negotiate.”

Neil raised an eyebrow; Kevin was a lot braver than he had given him credit for, it seemed.

Andrew gritted his teeth harder, and then left the room, letting the door close behind him with a slam. Kevin flinched, and then cleared his throat. “I can help, just let me go with them.”

Wymack frowned slightly, but then nodded. “Alright. Renee, Neil and Kevin will go to talk to the Moriyamas, and the rest of us will wait here for Nicky to return. Any objections?”

Neil was pretty sure that the only person who had any objections to that had just left the room. Wymack picked up the note then, folding it in half twice and then slipping it into his picket. “Okay, it’s settled then. You guys will leave at sunset, make sure that you’ve rested and gathered what you need before you go.”

Neil took that for the dismissal that it was, and he turned on his heel, going to look for Andrew.

 

* * *

 

 

Andrew struck again, and his fist met the punching bag with a satisfying thud. He could feel it, how his knuckles were going to be sore in the morning, but he ignored it in favour of just losing himself in the repetitive movements, ignoring his own thoughts in favour of relishing the dull ache in his hands.

It didn’t _matter_. Who _cared_ if Neil handed himself over to the Moriyamas? Not Andrew, anyway.

Except he _did_ , and he _hated_ it.

He hit it again, harder, ignoring how the bad groaned under the extra pressure it was being put under. It was old- Wymack had left it out from his own glory days, but no one ever really used it anymore. Andrew usually trained with Renee if he was looking for boxing, so he rarely used it either.

Suddenly, though, he heard a rip, and he pulled back in time to see the fabric of the bag rip along the seam, spilling out dry sand onto the floor as the rip slowly widened under the weight. Andrew just watched it go, until the pouring slowed to a couple of grains, here and there.

“Fuck.” He grimaced and then turned, not realising what he was doing until his fist contacted the wall beside him, pain lancing up his arm and making him cry out. “ _Fuck_.”

His knuckles had split, and he smeared the blood with his thumb before making his way across the room for a bandage. He could have used his stele, he supposed, but mundane healing would be slower, and it would leave a mark.

Renee would have called him edgy, if she was there with him. Thankfully though, he was alone.

“Well, _that_ was stupid.”

Andrew groaned. Not as alone as he thought, it seemed. “Josten, go away. Don’t you have anything better to do?”

Neil crossed the room quietly, and then plucked the bandage from Andrew’s hand, unravelling it a little before reaching for the disinfectant. “Does it hurt?”

Andrew didn’t grace that with a response, and he flexed his fingers. “Shouldn’t you be getting ready to leave?”

If Neil noticed the bitterness in Andrew’s tone, he didn’t show it. “I didn’t want to leave without talking to you. You left so quickly, I didn’t get a chance to say that I’d see you later.”

“You don’t take a hint, do you? I don’t want to talk to you.”

Neil shook his head slightly, applying disinfectant to the mans knuckles gently and then wrapping it with the bandage in a way that was too neat and efficient to have been his first time. There was probably a story to be told there- Andrew didn’t care, though, so he would never ask. When he was done, Neil folded the bandage up again. “I don’t think that’s true, Andrew.”

“So you’re saying that I’m lying?”

Neil smiled slightly. “Just because you don’t lie, doesn’t mean that you always tell the truth.”

“That was deep- Renee should put that on a pillow.”

Neil laughed then, and dropped Andrew’s hand. “I have to go, you know that.”

“You really don’t.” Andrew pressed his lips together and pulled away. “Don’t try to convince me that your dumb idea is the only way to do this.”

“It’s the easiest way to get Nicky back, Andrew. Let me go.”

“I’m not stopping you.”

Neil gave him a look, then, and then shook his head. “We need to get Nicky back before he gets hurt.”

“You don’t care about Nicky.”

“ _You_ do.”

Andrew gritted his teeth. “Go, then. I don’t care.”

Neil looked sad when he nodded, and Andrew thought that he was going to reach out and touch him before he left. He didn’t, though, just smiled before turning to leave.

Andrew thought about following him. He could imagine it- he would run after him, pull him back and ask him to stay. Maybe Neil would even agree, if he asked.

How willing he was to do that made him shudder, and he stayed exactly where he was, before picking up one of his daggers. He refused to wait for them to come back with bated breath- he’d go on patrol while they were gone, throw himself into fighting the way he always did, and return in time to see Nicky come back, to lecture Neil on whatever injuries he would inevitably get.

Distantly, he considered that Neil might not come back, but he squashed that thought down immediately. Renee and Kevin would bring him back, he knew that they would.

They _had_ to.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay, I had no internet for a couple of days!

Neil had only had dinner with Faeries a handful of times in his life, and all of those had been when he was very young, still living with his father. His father had had many unsavoury business partners- of all races, not just faeries, but the faeries had stood out the most to Neil when he was a child. Still, the interior design hadn’t changed much since the last time he had dined with the Moriyamas- stuffy and dull, and heavy-handed with its floral elements. The walls were a burgundy red, with darker decals in flowery shapes, velvety to the touch. Neil could taste it, the smell of dead flowers, on the back of his tongue. He swallowed thickly.

Renee and Kevin sat at either side of him, and he could see on their faces that they felt much the same way as him about the situation. Kevin was pale, though, and despondent looking. Neil squeezed his wrist gently.

“You’re fine, Kevin. You’re not one of them anymore, they can’t do anything to you.”

Kevin nodded stiffly, and then picked up his glass, drinking it down quickly. It wasn’t long until the Moriyama’s deigned to join them, with Riko leading the pack to settle into his seat, followed by Ichirou, and some lesser members of the family. Kevin and Renee bowed their heads in respect, while Neil just sat, watching them as they sat.

“Nathaniel, was it?” Ichirou’s voice was slightly amused, and Neil dug his nails into his palm to stop from answering back too quickly.

“I go by Neil, now.” Neil answered coolly, and rested his hand on the table in front of him. “You’re Ichirou Moriyama. You wished to speak with us?”

Ichirou picked up his glass before he spoke, taking a sip and then placing it down again. Renee mimicked him, and smiled serenely over at the men opposite her. Even from where he was sitting, Neil could see the steel that sat behind that smile, the danger there. He wondered if the Moriyamas picked up on it. They would have been stupid not to.

“I’m sure that you three are aware of the Cold Peace?”

Neil fought the urge to roll his eyes. Of _course_ he was aware of the Cold Peace, the so called ‘agreement’ that ordered for the faeries of the Seelie Court to pay reparations for the damages that they did to the Shadowhunter community during the Dark War. Everybody knew about it- you couldn’t exist without knowing about it, unless you were a mundane. “I’m not sure where you’re going with this- The Cold Peace doesn’t _apply_ to you, just to the Seelie court.”

“You see, this is where you come in.” Ichirou smiled, and then extended a hand, for what looked to be a handshake.

Neil simply raised an eyebrow at him. “I don’t follow.”

“What he means,” Riko piped up, from his place where everyone had forgotten about him. “Is that you three are going to petition the Clave to extend a peace to us- better than the Cold Peace. Then, we will be able to do as we please without so much scrutiny.”

Neil almost laughed. “You want us to vouch for you to the Clave? We don’t _like_ you.”

Kevin paled. “Neil-”

Neil shook his head and then finally took a drink, frowning over at the two men. “You can’t honestly expect us to help you. The Clave hates you, they would never go for it even if we did ask them.”

Ichirou smiled. “That’s why you’re going to get your little Shadowhunters to do the same.”

Neil almost laughed at the thought of anyone from the Palmetto Institute petitioning the Clave for anything; he couldn’t see it happening.

“Yeah, that won’t be happening.” Neil shrugged picking up his drink and taking a sip. It had an odd aftertaste, and he grimaced as he put it down. “You might as well let us leave now.”

Ichirou sighed, and then tutted quietly. “I was afraid that you would say that. Luckily, I know someone who will be able to make you change your mind.”

Neil frowned, and then it hit him- he was starting to feel drowsy.

“What-” He looked around, to find that Kevin and Renee seemed to be in a similar state to him. Panic started to take a hold of him, and he got to his feet. Renee started to scratch at her neck as she made small pained noises. Kevin looked like he was going to be sick.

“What did you do, Ichirou?”

“Tiny amounts of holy water mixed into the wine for your friend, just to make her… less of a threat, and Kava extract for the two of you.” Ichirou chuckled, and then gestured to his men as the darkness started to drag Neil under. “Take them to the portal, Riko. Ms. Malcolm will be waiting for them there.”

Neil struggled, and he turned to see Renee trying to fight the men off too, her teeth bared. Kevin had a seraph blade drawn, but none of it was any use. Before Neil could free his hands to help his friends, something hard came down against his head, knocking all thoughts of moving out of his head as he slid easily into darkness.

 

* * *

 

 

Neil’s head pounded. He wasn’t in a dining room anymore, that was for sure; He could feel the cold of concrete under his back and he assumed that he was lying on a floor somewhere. Distantly, he registered that someone was touching him, tugging on his hand. After a couple of seconds, the pain started to set in, and he felt himself twitch against it.

“Hey,” Neil coughed, tasting blood as he opened his eyes. “Hey, I need that hand.”

He heard Renee huff, a quick rush of breath, and then turn his hand over. “I’m just trying to help you, Neil. This cuff isn’t coming off, try not to move around so much.”

Neil nodded and then swallowed, looking around as he sat up. They were in a room, although it could barely be called that- there were no discernible entrances or exits, apart from what looked to be an airtight window set deep into the wall. Through it, a pale red sky could be seen, and Neil swallowed hard. That didn’t look promising.

“Do you see anything at all? I can’t reach the window.” Neil asked, as Renee moved around to try her hand at picking the lock of the other cuff. Neil seemed to be the only one chained at all, heavy chains weighing his arms down. Renee and Kevin were already awake, and unchained, although they seemed to be just as trapped as Neil was. Kevin looked over to where Neil was sitting, and Neil could see the marks on the man’s arms and neck starting to fade.

“No,” Kevin kept his answers short, and he glanced out the window again to look over whatever he could see outside. “Just fog. It’s hard to tell, but I think there could be mountains out there too.”

“Do you know where we are?” Renee asked, a crease forming between her eyebrows. “It feels… weird, here.”

Neil considered his words. “Nowhere good.”

Kevin huffed, and crossed his arms. “That’s very helpful, Neil. Thanks.”

Neil could feel the burning in his blood spreading throughout his body, his throat dry and his skin starting feel too small for his body. He knew what it meant, hoped that he was wrong.

He knew he wasn’t wrong, though, and his voice came out steady and sure.

“We’re in Edom,” he said. “A demon dimension.”

Renee tugged at the chains and then dropped them with a curse, shaking her head. “They’re not breaking. Why did whoever’s taken us chain you up, and not either of us?”

 “Because Neil needs his hands to do magic,” said Kevin, like it was obvious. “We don’t need our hands the way he does. Chaining him up leaves him helpless.”

Renee sat back on her heels and then nodded. “I didn’t know that, but then I suppose I don’t conduct much business with warlocks.”

Neil raised an eyebrow at her, and she flushed and looked away.

“It doesn’t even matter.” Neil sighed, and itched his face as much as he could with his restricted movement. “I can’t do magic here anyway, not if I’m not allowed to. My power is suppressed by the demon that rules this dimension, so these chains are just for show.”

Kevin frowned at him at that. “You know the demon who rules this dimension?”

Renee looked over at him too, but Neil didn’t let himself crumple under the scrutiny. He was not his father; there was no reason to cower away from it and let it control him. He swallowed, and then nodded,

“Of course I do.” He looked up at the two of them, a small, sad smile playing on his lips. “He’s my father.”

Renee and Kevin both looked at him sharply, but it seemed that Neil was done talking for a while. He looked tired, as if the weight of the world was on him, so they both decided that they would let him rest. There would be time for answers when they were out of there, after all.

 

* * *

 

 

Kevin was almost sure that it was daytime, but not because of his view out the window. The sky remained as dull and grey as it had been since they had arrived, but Renee’s strength had waned as the day had approached, and she lay resting in the corner to build her strength again. Kevin had never seen a vampire rest before, but she looked almost like a sleeping human. It was unsettling, to say the least.

“She needs blood, she hasn’t fed since before we went to that dinner.” Neil’s voice was gentle, and Kevin was surprised by it; he hadn’t been under the impression that Neil had had any love in his heart for Renee. She was friends with Andrew, that was all that he thought there was to it. It seemed that he had been wrong.

“You care about her.” He frowned. “Why?”

Neil shrugged. “She is important to the people I care about, and that makes her important to me too, at least by association.”

Kevin hummed. “But that’s not all there is to it. You know her?”

Neil looked over at her, looked at the dark veins that were beginning to show through her skin. “I met her through Allison, just after she took me in. We’ve run in the same circles for a long time now. I owe a lot of things to Renee Walker.”

He paused, and then scratched at his wrist absentmindedly. “She saved Andrew’s life too, once. I hope that she survives this. I hope both of you survive this, they don’t deserve to lose anyone else.”

Kevin remained quiet for a few minutes. Neil already seemed resigned to his death; he didn’t know how to respond to that. He wasn’t even sure if it had occurred to Neil that they Shadowhunters would mourn Neil’s absence too. He wasn’t even sure if Neil had realised that they cared about him. Instead, he simply shook his head.

 “You hope that _she_ survives this? How many people has she killed, Neil?”

Neil turned a cold look on him, and Kevin shivered. “How many have you killed? You are a Shadowhunter, if you haven’t forgotten.”

“That’s different, that was-”

Neil ploughed on, his voice sharp as a tack. “When you lived with the Moriyamas, how many then?”

Kevin went quiet, and Neil shook his head. “Not one of us can judge her for the things that she did before. We don’t have enough good people to disregard her.”

Kevin swallowed, and then nodded. “You’re right. I apologise.”

After a few seconds though, he spoke again. “I thought that you’d be more worried about Andrew, but you’ve barely mentioned him.”

Neil gritted his teeth, sitting up against the wall again; Kevin could see that his strength was fading fast. He would be lucky if he survived the night, never mind the next couple of days. “I don’t want to talk about Andrew. He’s safe, at the Institute.”

Kevin frowned. “You don’t think that he’ll come for you?”

He wasn’t stupid, none of them were. They had all seen when Andrew and Neil had disappeared for hours together, when they had come back from the training sessions that Andrew had always refused to have with anyone else. They had all seen Neil wriggle his way into Andrew’s inner circle, and they had all seen Andrew _let_ him. Andrew had never let anyone burrow themselves so deeply into his list of priorities before, and that alone spoke volumes. The idea that Andrew wouldn’t be coming for Neil was laughable, really.

Still, Neil shook his head. “I suspected that something would happen, and I made him promise not to protect me anymore. He will come for you both, though. I can only hope to keep him safe when he does.”

Kevin watched him. “You love him.”

Neil’s expression was grim.

“Shadowhunters,” he said. “They get under your skin, and they don’t even mean to. I promised my mother I would never- She didn’t want me falling in love with anyone, mind you, but especially not a Shadowhunter.”

Kevin raised an eyebrow. “What’s wrong with Shadowhunters?”

Neil laughed, softly. “Loving a Shadowhunter will burn you up, Kevin Day.”

His voice took on a musical quality, as if he was quoting something. “For they have the blood of angels in them, and the love of angels is a high and holy thing.”

“Is that so bad?” Kevin frowned. “The love of angels?”

Neil shrugged. “I’m a selfish person, I always have been. It’s how I was raised. Sometimes, though it comes down to a choice between saving one person and saving the whole world. I would choose him, again and again.”

He sighed, and then looked out the window. “But Nephilim will always choose the world, and it is unfair to ask them to do otherwise. Andrew is too selfless.”

Kevin shook his head. “You can’t make that choice for him, Neil. You love him.”

“Not yet. But I could have, I think.”

Kevin opened his mouth to speak, but Neil silenced him with a look. “Get some sleep, Kevin. You’ll need it, I think.”

 

* * *

 

 

“Andrew. Wake _up_.”

Andrew jerked awake, and found himself lying on the couch one of the training rooms, his knives on the couch beside him and fallen onto the floor around him. He didn’t remember falling asleep, although he supposed that didn’t matter. Aaron was standing beside the couch, just outside arm’s reach.

“Aaron.” he said, trying to sound as dignified as he possibly could while sporting a rather impressive bedhead, dressed in the previous day’s training gear.

Aaron looked bothered, and Andrew narrowed his eyes. Something was wrong. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing.” Aaron replied, much too fast to be believable. “Nicky is home safe.”

Andrew glanced at the clock on the wall and then frowned. He knew that, he had been there when Nicky had returned safely from the Moriyamas. He had been the one to check the man for injuries after all, had been the one who went to pick up Erik afterwards. Nicky had gotten on mostly unscathed, thankfully, with just a couple of bruises to show for his ordeal. “Where is Neil? Renee told me that she’d come and train with me as soon as they returned from their dinner.”

He caught the tension in Aaron’s expression, and he pressed his lips together. “Where are they, Aaron.”

“We’re not sure where they are.” Aaron said quietly, and Andrew felt his chest starting to hurt. Maybe he had slept funny. “They never responded to the message that we sent to them last night, asking them when they were returning.”

Andrew pushed himself up. “So they’re missing, then?”

Aaron paused. “They Moriyamas... they don’t have them anymore. Wymack wouldn’t tell us much- something about demons, or something. The Moriyamas handed them off to someone else, it looks like.”

 Andrew pressed his lips together, remembering back to his last conversation with Neil. The sneaky _bastard_. He _knew_ that something like this was going to happen, and he had gone anyway. Andrew was going to _kill_ him.

He got up and picked up his knives, methodically sliding them back into their rightful places in his gear and then brushing himself off.

“What are you-”

“Well someone’s got to go get them, don’t they?” Andrew grabbed a witchlight from the training closet and shoved it into his pocket, grabbing a black jacket. “Can’t all sit around here doing nothing.”

“Andrew-” Aaron looked worried, but Andrew cut him off again.

“No. I’m going to get Neil, Renee, and Kevin, and then I’m coming back.” His voice was final, and after a couple of seconds of staring, Aaron sighed and then gave a slow nod.

“Yeah, okay. Let me go get Kate, I’ll be right back.” Andrew raised an eyebrow, and Aaron shook his head before frowning at him. “You didn’t think that we’d let you go alone, did you? We’re coming with you.”

Andrew rolled his eyes. “I don’t need your help.”

Aaron picked up his bow, and then found a full quiver, turning around to point the tip of the bow at Andrew’s chest, just short of touching him. Andrew realised, not for the first, time, just how similar they were. “Well you’re getting it. We’re coming with you, Andrew.”

Andrew swallowed, and then gave him a curt nod. “Don’t be late, or I’ll leave without you.”

Aaron watched him, and then swallowed. “What are you going to do?”

Andrew put the last knife back into his sleeve, and then turned to look at his brother. “I’m going to go and talk to Wymack, and then we’re going after them ourselves.”

 

* * *

 

 

The woman who came to feed them was pretty, or at least she might have been, once, Neil thought. Her dark hair was tangled and bushy where it fell down her back, and Kevin could see the twigs and brambles tangled in it. She didn’t smile as she put the food down; two plates of gruel for Kevin and Neil, a dusty bottle of blood for Renee. None of them moved forward for it, staying with their backs to the wall.

Kevin lowered his voice, watching the veins on Renee’s neck become more pronounced. “Renee, maybe you should-”

Renee cut him off before he could finish. “I’d rather starve.”

“Now, now, Renee,” said a voice from the shadows, and a new woman appeared in the open doorway. Her eyes were wild, and she grinned wider when she saw Neil where he was, hunched over on the floor. “That’s no way to thank your hosts, now is it?”

Neil paled as soon as he saw her, and he cursed as he tried to sit up. “Don’t eat anything she gives you.”

Her smile only widened at that. “Hiya, Junior. Long-time no see, huh?”

“Where are we?” Kevin demanded, pushing himself up to a standing position. “Let us go.”

The woman- Lola Malcolm- rolled her eyes. “Why would I do something crazy like that? Don’t you know what a prisoner is, silly?”

 “You seem very crazy,” said Renee, breaking her silence and then shrugging. “It was worth a shot.”

“Renee,” Neil said in a warning tone, but Lola only laughed at her.

 “You’re cute, little vampire. Wouldn’t you like to join the winning side for once? We could offer you a pretty sweet deal, if you join us now. Nice peaceful life with your little warlock girlfriend, hm?”

Renee regarded her, considering, and Neil widened his eyes slightly as she spoke. “Go on.”

Lola smirked. “Your own coven, all the mundanes you can eat. A bigger city for Reynolds to run. Need I go on?”

 “That seems… reasonable. Generous, even.” Renee said, after a beat. Lola’s smile brightened.

Kevin protested. “Renee what are you-”

 “Kevin, it doesn’t matter.” Renee had already gone to stand beside Lola, but Neil could see the way her fangs had started to extend. Renee Walker was a lot of things, but she wasn’t a turncoat. The woman had a plan, that much was obvious. Neil was placing their lives in her hands, and he couldn’t even find it in himself to feel worried about it. “Let her go. She’s no loss, not really.”

Renee snorted. “No loss, you say, dying on the floor.”

Lola looked extremely pleased at this turn of events, and she dipper her hand into her jacket to produce a long, thin blade- perfect for a mercy killing. Neil swallowed hard. His father had always had an impressive collection of knives, for a man who didn’t need them.

 “Take it,” she said, holding it out handle-first to her. Renee reached out and took it, flipping it over in her hand and holding it with a practiced balance. That surprised Neil- Vampires were their own weapons, Renee hardly had a use for knives. There was a history there that he didn’t know.

He hoped that they both survived long enough for him to find out.

Lola clapped, and then pointed towards Neil. “Now, time to prove your loyalty. Kill the warlock.”

The blade dropped from Renee’s hand and fell to the ground with a clatter. Lola shook her head, before bending to pick it up again. “Clumsy, aren’t we?”

Renee shrugged. “My kind don’t kill using knives. You know that.”

“You do now,” said Lola, before turning on Neil. “Junior here is like a little cockroach- tearing his throat out might not even kill him.”

Renee turned toward Neil, her expression doubtful. Kevin started forward; Neil stopped him with a raised hand.

“Kevin,” he said. “Don’t.”

Renee took another step toward Neil, keeping her head down. Her lips moved; Neil was almost sure that she was praying. Their eyes met for a moment, and Neil offered her the skeleton of what could have been a smile. With a strange detachment, Neil watched her grip the knife, watched her get closer. There was a faint realisation, somewhere, that there was a chance that he could die where he was. After all those years on borrowed time, the idea of dying seemed surreal. Neil supposed he should have been frightened, but all he felt was tired.

When you had already flirted with the reality of death more than once, it felt more like a comfortable bed than a new adventure.

The tip of the knife touched against his throat, finally, and he felt it sting as it pressed against the delicate skin there. His eyes fell shut.

“Come on, Walker.” Lola was positively giddy with the prospect of watching a murder. “He’s lived far too long already.”

Neil could hardly argue with that, and he blocked out the sound of Lola’s voice as he turned his thoughts to Andrew. If there was such a thing as luck, Andrew was still at the Institute, with his family. Andrew, despite what others thought of him, was a family man to the core after all. Still, he knew Andrew and he was also a stubborn bastard at the best of times. He thought perhaps he loved him, or at least he could have if he had the time to.

It seemed his time was running out, though. He looked up at Renee, and then worked his throat as he swallowed roughly.

“I forgive you, Renee.”

Lola giggled. “You’re too slow, Walker. Kill the warlock.”

Neil saw it in her eyes as Renee made her choice, and he watched as she clenched her fist, relaxed it, and then turned to throw the knife.

Her throw was true, but her aim wasn’t, and the knife sank itself into Lola’s abdomen, making her hiss. Neil winced. It wasn’t a fatal wound, and they all knew it.

Renee bared her teeth and moved to shield Neil as much as she could. Lola took the knife out, and it fell to the ground with a clatter. Then, she let out a shaky laugh.

“Oh, Renee. You disappoint me.”

Lola drew her sword, running a finger along the blade, blood beading up as it grazed the skin. Then, too fast for Neil or Kevin to do anything about it, she turned and thrust the blade through Renee’s chest, knocking the air Renee had no use for out of her lungs.

“You disappoint me very much.”

With that, she withdrew the sword and let Renee crumple to the ground, before wiping it off on her trousers and exiting the way that she came in, dragging Neil after her.


	6. Chapter 6

Kevin pressed a hand to his mouth, gagging slightly, and he sat in silence for what seemed like forever until Neil came back, thrown into the room roughly and falling in a heap on the floor.

He grimaced, and then pushed himself up to turn and face him. Kevin’s eyes widened, and he recoiled away.

“ _Neil_.”

Neil gritted his teeth. “I’m fine, Kevin.”

He could hardly feel the left side of his face- he wasn’t even sure if that was a good thing or not, given how much pain was radiating from the right side. Lola had had a lot of fun with it, taking a jagged piece of glass and a hot coal and ruining his face, marring his features. She had laughed all the while, but Neil was fairly sure that he had passed out for a couple of minutes here and there from the pain of it. Time seemed to pass differently, there, so the timeline was a little fuzzy for him. He dreaded the moment when the shock would subside, and the real pain would set in. Hopefully he’d be dead before then.

Kevin, thankfully, dropped it. His bottom lip still wobbled though. Neil had to look away.

Renee hadn’t move from where she had fallen, her eyes glassy and still and her arm bent underneath her. Neil felt hollow inside; not only had he lost a friend, but Allison… she must have been so worried. The silence was smothering, and Neil wished desperately for Renee to just reassure them, to tell them that everything would be okay. She had been good at that, since they had arrived in this god awful dimension.

He wished desperately for Andrew. He’d know what to do, how to fix things. Andrew always seemed to know what to do.

“Neil.” Kevin’s voice cracked horribly. “Neil, she’s-”

Neil shushed him sharply, and then pushed himself to a sitting position. “Kevin, bring her here.”

Kevin gave him a side glance, and then reluctantly bent down to pick her up, her limp form dangling from his arms as he brought him over to the corner where Neil was chained up. He laid her down at his feet, and Neil reached out to brush the hair off her face. Her skin was pallid, but that wasn’t very far from the usual, he supposed. Grief threatened to smother him, and he shook with the unfamiliarity of it. He had never grieved for his mother, had never had the time.

“Get me something sharp.”

Kevin raised an eyebrow. “What are you-”

“ _Now_ , Kevin.”

He held his hand up, and before long Kevin placed a piece of jagged tile that he had found in the corner of the room into his palm. He closed his fist around it until the edge bit into his palm, and then took a deep breath. His mother would kill him, if she could see him now, sacrificing some of his health for a vampire.

Not for the first time, he counted his blessings that she wasn’t around anymore.

Leaning forward to give himself the space to move his arm, he brought the edge of the rile down against his palm, digging it in until the skin tore open and he could cut a gash into his hand. Blood started to well up immediately, and he groaned at the pain of it before resting his hand against Renee’s mouth, letting the blood start to flow in. There was tense silence for a couple of minutes, and then Neil saw her fingers twitch.

“Renee?”

Her eyelashes fluttered, and then Neil felt her reach up to clamp a vice-like grip on his wrist, and she surged up to press her lips against his palm, her teeth brushing against the skin there. Kevin paled, and took a step back.

As she drank, Neil could feel himself starting to get a little lightheaded, and he held out a hand to brace himself on the wall. It crumbled a little to the touch, but he hung onto it as long as he could.

“Renee.” Kevin reached out and put a hand on her shoulder, and she rounded on him with a hiss, before widening her eyes and pulling back, pressing a hand to her own mouth. Her expression was open, and the fear there made Neil wince.

Neil groaned, and relaxed back against the wall. “You’re okay, Renee.”

She looked at him, and then back at Kevin. “I…”

Her voice shook, and she closed her mouth again before nodding. He could see her composing herself, forcing herself to calm down. “Thank you, Neil.”

Neil nodded, and then closed his eyes. He was so tired. He wasn’t exactly the praying kind, but he pressed his lips together and rattled off a prayer to whoever was listening that he wouldn’t die in front of his friends, in front of his new family. The Shadowhunters would come for Renee and Kevin, that much was for certain. It wasn’t in their nature to just give up on their friends.

Andrew would be with them too, there was no way that he’d stay at home for this particular battle. Neil could imagine him now, like an avenging angel coming for them. The others would probably come with him, too, putting themselves in danger. He let out a slow, pained breath. Stupid Shadowhunters, so willing to die for the things they cared about.

Maybe he was more a Shadowhunter than a Warlock after all.

He could hear Kevin nearby, breathing harshly. Andrew would definitely come for him; He still owed him protection from the Moriyamas after all. He wasn’t one to treat a promise lightly. He would come, they all would.

Neil could only hope that there would be something worth saving left of him when they arrived.

 

* * *

 

 

“Remind me again why we didn’t bring anyone else with us?” Aaron’s face was red as he handed Katelyn the sword that he had borrowed from her. The path was clear, at least, but that didn’t do much to help the nicks and scrapes that they had already gotten from the brambles and bushes that were obscuring the paths.

“Oh, little Shadowhunter, are a couple of thorns really going to get the better of you?” Reynolds laughed from where she was walking ahead of them, and then turned to look back at them.

Aaron glared at her, and Andrew just rolled his eyes at her. “Let’s just keep going, okay?”

She led them to a clearing and then stopped, looking around with judging eyes. She seemed to find what she was looking for, even if Andrew couldn’t tell what it was, and then she put her hands on her hips. “Now, would you like to tell me why I’m opening a portal to a demon dimension?”

Andrew shrugged easily. “For fun?”

“Fat chance.” Reynolds drummed her fingers on her arm. “This has something to do with Neil, right? And Renee, probably, since she didn’t come home last night.”

Andrew, not one to give anything away, just clenched his jaw. “Just open the damn portal, Reynolds.”

She stared him down, before waving her hands and taking the bag off her back. “Yeah, yeah, okay. You’re lucky I don’t hate you guys. Or at least that I don’t hate Neil and Renee.”

“More like _surprised_ , honestly.” Katelyn grinned at her and then leaned over to pick a couple of twigs out of Aaron’s hair. “We’ll bring you back a souvenir?”

Reynolds just rolled her eyes and started to take out everything that she needed to set up the portal, working in silence and then rocking back onto her heels. “Alright. You have two hours, and then I have to close it before it gets too unstable.”

She went quiet, and then looked up at Andrew. “Bring them back, okay?”

Andrew swallowed, and then nodded. “I will.”

She took a step back and murmured a couple of words under her breath, steadily rising until she was chanting, the candles that she had lit flickering a little despite the lack of wind. A low hum reached Andrew’s ears, and he stepped back to watch the portal take shape. It wasn’t the first portal that he had seen, since the Clave often made portals for their own purposes, but it _was_ probably the prettiest. He hadn’t expected any less, though, Reynolds had always been one for pretty things, after all. Renee was a testament to that.

When it was open, pulsing and pale lavender, she pushed her hair back. “Okay. Two hours, remember that.”

Aaron nodded and grabbed Katelyn’s hand, stepping up to the portal and stepping through, vanishing from sight and leaving Allison and Andrew standing together.

“I’ll get them back.” Andrew’s voice was firm, like a promise.

“I know, Minyard. You think I’d let you go if I didn’t think you would?”

Andrew crackled his knuckles, and then stepped through the portal, letting the purple light wash over him, and the words rang in his ears as it swept him away.

 

* * *

 

 

Light filled the room from outside, and Kevin winced at the sudden glare in his eyes. He covered his eyes with a hand, before squinting to try and see the source.

“What is it?” Renee looked up from where she had taken up a quiet vigil beside Neil, her rosary beads clasped between fabric in her hands. Neil looked to be asleep, his eyes closed with dark bags underneath them, but Kevin knew better. His breaths were coming in slow, shallow rasps, and Kevin could almost see the energy leeching out of him. He could only hope that they would be saved before Neil died. 

“I’m not sure, I can barely see it.” Kevin said, and he stepped to the side to allow for space as Renee moved silently to join him by the window. He wasn’t comfortable around her, had never been comfortable around the Night Children even as a child, when his mother had brought her friends around some nights. Renee, though, was as unpredictable as she was unsettling. She had never been rude to Kevin, nor had he seen her being rude to anybody else, but there was a darkness in her that Kevin didn’t expect to see in such a young woman. It was the same thing that he saw in Andrew sometimes, in Neil. No wonder they got along so well.

“What do you think it is?” Kevin asked.

“Nothing of this world.” Renee looked much older than her appearance just then, and Kevin was struck with the realisation that she was older than Kevin, older than Kevin’s parents- older than his mother, if she had lived. It didn’t sit easy with him. Renee took a step away from the light, and cursed in Korean. “This fire, it’s how God appeared to wanderers in the desert. ‘Has any people heard the voice of God speaking from the midst of the fire, as you have heard it, and survived?’”

She watched the light pulse slightly, and then smiled. “That is the light of the Shadowhunters.”

Kevin gave her an odd look at the bible quote, and she smiled softly, reaching to touch the cross pendant on her chest. “I am a Christian, Kevin.”

Kevin frowned. “How can you wear it?”

Renee paused, and then pulled the necklace to the side, exposing a cross-shaped scar on the middle of her chest. “Back when I was first turned, I was confused, and I lashed out at others in fear. But I was found, by a coven in my hometown and they saved me.”

“Saved you?”

“The leader, her name was Stephanie Walker.” Renee smiled softly at the memory, and then let the cross fall back in place. “When I first became a vampire, I wanted to die. I thought I was a damned thing. She showed me how to walk on blessed ground, how to say the name of God, how to wear a cross again. It wasn’t magic that she gave me, or a cure for this disease, but it saved my life all the same.”

Kevin tilted his head back, resting it against the stone wall. “I owe you an apology, Renee. I misspoke, earlier, implying that you were a monster.”

Renee’s smile was hollow. “I suppose that I am a monster, if you think about it.”

Kevin shook his head quickly. “I don’t believe that, not after hearing what Neil thinks of you, not after talking to you myself.”

Renee rested a hand on his, cold and dry. “I’m glad, Kevin.”

Kevin swallowed, uncomfortable, and then changed the subject. “Can you see anything else?”

Renee shook her head, frustrated. “The fire is dying away now.”

From behind them, a guttural groan got their attention. Neil was waxy pale, and his eyebrows were pinched together in pain. He had been losing his health ever since they had arrived, but it was finally starting to show through the cracks of his forced nonchalance. He let out a shuddering breath, and Kevin sighed.

 “Speaking of fading …” Renee knelt beside Neil again, pressing a cold hand to his forehead. “Is there anything that we can do to help you, Neil? I’ve never seen a warlock get like this.”

“Renee …” Neil dragged a hand through his hair, rattling his chain against the concrete floor. Kevin could see his veins through the skin on his wrist. “It’s my father, he’s why I’m like this.”

“Your father?”

“He’s a demon,” Neil said shortly. “Which shouldn’t be a huge surprise, given what I am. I’m not telling you any more than that.”

“Fine, but why would being in your father’s realm make you sick?”

“He’s trying to get me to call on him,” said Neil, propping himself on his elbows with a considerable amount of effort. “I can’t use my powers here, so I can’t protect myself. He’s making me sick because he thinks if I’m about to die, I’ll call on him to help me.”

“Will you?” asked Kevin.

The silence on Neil’s part was answer enough, and Kevin felt himself tense. He and Neil weren’t close, not exactly, but he had always liked the warlock. They were friends, he thought. He didn’t like the hopelessness in Neil’s voice, or the emptiness behind his eyes.

“Even with your _life_ in the balance?”

Neil looked at Kevin, and then closed his eyes. “Even then.”

“I—” Kevin began, but Renee shook his head at him, silencing him. She hunched forwards, and he was stunned at the sight of dark veins on her neck, disappearing under her shirt. She hadn’t fed in days, and it showed. The picture that they must have made almost made Kevin laugh- though out of despair, instead of joy. The pious, starving vampire, the dying warlock and the craven Shadowhunter.

“You know nothing of his father,” said Renee in a low voice. Neil seemed to have fallen asleep again, exhausted from the conversation they had just had.

“And I suppose you know who Neil’s father is, then?” Kevin said.

“I have a hunch.”

Kevin huffed, and then crossed his arms. “Care to share?”

 “I won’t betray Neil’s trust.” She answered simply, and Kevin sighed. Renee’s inherent goodness was nothing if not predictable, even if nothing else about her was.

“Answer me one thing, though.” Kevin said, allowing himself to rest against the wall and slide down into a sitting position. “Is Neil’s father someone who could help us?”

Renee laughed, though there was no joy in it. “If you know what’s good for you, you’ll pray that he doesn’t decide to help us.”

Kevin thought it best not to reply, and they sat in uncomfortable almost-silence, with Neil’s laboured breathing to keep them company.

 

* * *

 

“Neil, you need to wake up. _Now_.”

“What’s going on?” Neil asked hoarsely. Kevin’s voice in his ear was frantic, it made his head pound. In the hours since Renee had decided to sleep off the last of the drain in her energy, he had been able to feel the life slipping away from him. He couldn’t sit up anymore, nor could he feel the lower half of his body. He was dying; of that much he was sure.

“There’s a light,” Kevin said, his voice quiet. “There’s a light coming from outside, it’s coming from _just outside_.”

Neil laughed, and tasted blood on his tongue. He coughed, weakly, and then wiped at his mouth gently. “Oh, joy. I wonder what that is.”

“Come on,” Kevin said, frowning just slightly. “Who do you think it is? You’re smarter than that, Neil.”

Neil just furrowed his brow at him, and waited for the man to speak again.

“Well,” Kevin said, as if it were obvious. “It’s Andrew, right? Of _course_ it’s Andrew.”

Neil snapped his head up. “No, Andrew’s not supposed to be here.”

“Isn’t he always where he isn’t supposed to be?” Kevin said in an annoyingly reasonable voice. Neil grimaced; he had tried so hard to keep Andrew safe, but he had failed. “He was always going to come for you, Neil. It was just a question of when.”

Kevin didn’t have time to reply before the door burst open, and the room was flooded with light. Neil tried to sit up, to see what was going on, couldn’t, and then fell back onto his elbows with a grunt and a cry of pain. He felt dull annoyance stab through him, and he opened his eyes again. If Lola had come to kill them after all, he’d rather die on his feet than on his knees if he had the option. It didn’t seem like he’d get that chance, though.

He heard voices from outside, a quiet clamour that grew closer. Not Lola. Then he heard Kevin exclaiming, and then his world became a swell of sound, making it hard to focus. Neil tried again to force himself up onto his elbows, felt himself growing pale from the exertion but he managed to do it nevertheless. It only lasted a few moments, though, before hands forced him back into a lying position, warm against his skin.

“Lie the hell down, you fucking _idiot_.”

Neil’s vision swam, and he opened his eyes again to catch a glimpse of blond hair, of angry hazel eyes.

“’Ndrew?”

Neil let out a low breath, and an exhausted smile tugged at his lip. Any fear of death washed away from him, leaving him tired once again. Relief too washed over him, soaking in to the bone. He reached up weakly to brush Andrew’s cheek with bruised and bloodied fingers. The man’s expression was hard, but Neil could see the hurt there, the anguish. His heart, or whatever was left of it, ached at the sight of it. He had never intended to hurt Andrew, but he had never been good at keeping the things that he cared about safe.

He brought a hand up to the man’s face, felt the twitch in his jaw.

“Oh, my Andrew,” he said. “You’ve been so sad. I didn’t know.”

 

 

 “Neil,” Andrew said desperately, gritting his teeth as he gripped the adamas chains that held Neil in place. “What happened to your _face_?”

At the other side of the room, Katelyn and Aaron were helping Kevin and Renee, Aaron tracing iratzes onto Kevin’s arms while Katelyn knelt over Renee, her expression grim. She kept turning to look back towards Andrew and Neil, her face anxious; Andrew kept his eyes on Neil, not daring to tear his eyes away. He pressed a hand to Neil’s forehead as he took out the few supplies that he had grabbed before they had left on their little rescue mission. Neil was ashen, his eyes dark and sunken. He seemed to be on death’s door. He was lucky that he had survived that long at all.

 _My Andrew,_ he had whispered, _you’ve been so sad. I didn’t know._ And then his head had fallen back, his breathing stuttering for a second.

“Hold still, Neil.” Andrew said, his voice icy. He pulled a seraph blade out of his armbands and then turned it over in his hand, smoothing a thumb over the engraved handle.

“Eremiel,” he muttered, and when the knife came to life in his hand he brought it down roughly against the adamas, shattering it on impact and leaving Neil free again. Neil reached for him blindly, but instead of using Andrew’s weight to pull himself up like Andrew had expected him to, he yanked Andrew down on top of him, his hand tangling itself in the man’s hair so weakly that he barely felt it. Their lips met roughly, a clash of teeth and Andrew froze for a second. Then, as soon as his mind caught up, he gave himself over to kissing Neil. He had thought that he’d never get to do that, not without interruption, and he wasn’t about to squander the opportunity. He was careful to avoid the cuts, the awful looking burn under Neil’s eye. He was going to _kill_ whoever did that to him.

When Neil had been kissed thoroughly and utterly breathless, Andrew only broke away to the sound of somebody clearing his throat behind them.

“Uh, not to interrupt,” Aaron sounded extremely awkward, and Neil wheezed a quiet laugh, letting his head rest back again. “But we should really get them back to the Institute, Andrew.”

 “That’s a pity,” Neil said, letting his eyes slip closed and squeezing Andrew’s hand, just the slightest squeeze. “It would be nice if you could lie down with me here before I go. Just … for a little while.”

“You’re not fucking dying, Neil.” The four Shadowhunters said at the same time, with a confidence that only Shadowhunters could muster; It brought a smile to Neil’s face.

“There’s still the problem of Neil’s father and that woman to deal with.” Kevin swallowed, and then glanced at Neil. “They didn’t seem the type to allow people to leave so easily.”

“Neil’s father?” Andrew’s mouth pressed together into a thin line. “You’ve been keeping secrets then, Josten.”

Aaron huffed a laugh. “You can argue _after_ we get out of this alive, you know.”

Andrew thought about it, and then drew his knives. “Oh don’t worry, we will.”

Katelyn opened her mouth, then closed it again and smiled.

“Let’s do this, then.” she said. She pulled a sword from her belt and swung it, before resting it on her shoulder and handing a smaller short sword to Kevin. Then she bent down to retrieve Andrew’s seraph blade, which was still blazing. Kevin took the sword with an effortless competence, and Andrew forced himself to stand again, moving away from Neil.

“We need to get Neil out of here.”

Aaron looked at Andrew for a long moment, and then nodded. “We’ll take him.”

At a look from Katelyn, he huffed and rolled his eyes. “I’ll take him, then.”

“Can you stand?” Andrew asked him quietly, and Neil nodded, letting Andrew haul him up and help him to balance on his feet. He only lasted around ten seconds before his knees started to go, and he sank to the floor, coughing.

Andrew dropped to his side, but Neil pushed him away gently.

“You should go without me. I’ll only slow you down, Drew.”

 “Fuck that.” Andrew said, with feeling. “What the fuck is _happening_ to you?”

It was Kevin who answered him, surprisingly.

“It’s his father, he’s killing him.” he said, his voice hopeless. “I don’t understand it either, but- there’s something about it that’s draining his strength.”

 Andrew turned to look at Neil, who looked away. Andrew pushed down a wave of anger- Neil still was still keeping things from him, even now- and he sucked in a breath, before letting it go.

“The rest of you can go.” he said. “I’ll stay with Neil, and we’ll start heading back to where we came in.”

Katelyn’s expression was wretched. “Andrew-”

“Go.” said Andrew, and he saw Aaron lean over to whisper something into her ear. She nodded, finally agreeing, and then finally turned toward the door. Kevin and Aaron followed her, both pausing to look back at Andrew before they went, as if checking if he was going to change his mind.

He wasn’t.

“Here,” he grunted, lifting Neil to his feet again and throwing the warlock’s arm around his neck, picking him up and holding him in his arms. Neil was so light that he barely weighed anything at all- Andrew hated it.

“Hold on to me,” Andrew said, his voice strained, and Neil offered him a smile that made his heart race

“I always do, Drew.” he said. “I always do."

 

 

* * *

 

 

Getting Neil to safety was the easy part for Andrew. He lifted him up gently, taking care not to let the man’s head fall back too much, keeping it nestled up against his chest instead. Neil, to his credit, tried to make it easy for Andrew to carry him, gripping the man’s shirt as tightly as he could and tucking in his feet in when they reached the doorway.

“’Ndrew, s’dangerous.” Neil grimaced, and Andrew shook his head, waiting until he was well clear of the building to put Neil down carefully, leaving his supplies with him and taking out water for him to drink.

“Stay here, Josten. I’ll be right back.”

Neil sipped the water weakly, and then looked up at him. “What are you-”

Andrew hummed, and then drew his short-sword, turning it over in his hand. “Your father. Where is he?”

Neil paled considerably. “Andrew, no-”

“Neil.”

Neil pushed himself up and then took another drink of water. “He- He’s not who you need to worry about, not really. There’s a reason he didn’t come for me himself, he- my mother hurt him, when we ran away. I don’t know what she did, but he’s not as dangerous as he used to be.”

Andrew sensed that there was more to come, so he stayed silent and let Neil speak.

“ _She_ is, though.” Neil groaned. “Lola Malcolm, she’s the one who hurt Renee.”

Andrew hummed. “And she’s inside?”

“Probably. Andrew, be careful.”

Andrew paused, and then knelt to press a quick kiss to Neil’s lips. “I’ll be right back, Idiot.”

Neil rolled his eyes and watched him go, and Andrew rolled his neck and cracked his knuckles as he made his way back into the decaying building.

 

It didn’t take him long to find her. The noise must have drawn her out, and she grinned brightly when she saw Andrew standing in the hallway. Her hair was a shock of red, though it was matted and tangled from bad hygiene, or maybe lack of giving a shit. Her clothes were old fashioned too, and full of holes and tears. Her eyes wrinkled at the corners as she giggled.

“You’re a long, _long_ way from home, little Shadowhunter.”

“Got lost.” Andrew shrugged easily, and dragged a finger along the blade of his sword. “Whoops.”

She laughed and then drew her weapons- a short hand-axe, and a pocket knife. Andrew raised an eyebrow, and waited her out. She would crack before him, he was sure. She looked _bloodthirsty_.

He was right. After a couple of seconds, she started forward eagerly and threw herself into the fight, swinging the axe down and just barely grazing Andrew’s arm. Andrew hissed out a breath, turning and catching her on the thigh with a deep gash. She barely even seemed to notice, and Andrew took the opening to push her backwards and catch her legs with his own, knocking her over.

She keened as she lay back, and then pushed herself up to look at him. “Are you having fun, Shadowhunter?”

“Oh, _heaps_.”

Lola hummed, and then clicked her fingers, causing red hot pain to shoot through Andrew’s torso. He almost cried out, but bit down hard on his lip to stop himself. Her expression turned smug. “How about with some broken ribs then?”

Andrew pushed the pain from his mind, and wiped his sword on his trousers. “Even better.”

Then, he brought the sword down hard, cutting off the woman’s fingers as she moved backwards, making her fall back and clutch her hand to her chest. Blood started to soak into her shirt.

“He cried for you, you know.” She spat, the pain finally starting to leak into her voice. “When I was burning him. You’re Andrew, right?”

She pitched her voice up, putting a hitch in it to mimic crying. “Andrew, please stop them, Andrew-”

Andrew saw red, and he picked up the discarded pocket knife from the floor near Lola’s severed fingers. “What did you say?”

Lola cooed at him. “Oh, he _begged_ me to stop. He wanted you to save him, didn’t he?”

She was taunting him, he knew. Renee would have told him not to rise to the bait. Aaron would have told him to be careful, not to let his emotions get the best of him. He supposed that all of his training pointed in the direction of him being rational, not doing anything too rash.

Thankfully, Andrew hadn’t listened all that well to anyone.

She giggled and started to mock Neil again, and Andrew took that moment to strike, driving the knife into the woman’s throat so hard he felt her fall back against the ground. The smile dropped from her face as she started to choke, and he sat back.

“What was that? What were you saying?”

Lola whimpered and scrabbled to pull the knife out, but her hands were slippery with blood and panic and she couldn’t seem to get a grasp on it. Andrew watched her, raising an eyebrow.

“Well? Beg for your life, won’t you? Get on with it.”

She did, and Andrew rolled his eyes, pushing himself to his feet. His ribs hurt, he could feel the ache of it, the periodic stabbing pains as he moved. “You know, none of you are as scary with a knife buried in your neck. Pathetic, really.”

He stayed until she finally went still, the blood still oozing lazily from her mouth and throat, and then he reached in to take the knife back, wiping it as clean as he could get it on her shirt before stowing it in his pocket. It would make a pretty nice souvenir, if anything. Then he set to work making sure that she was thoroughly unrevivable, ensuring that she would never make the mistake of coming for Neil, or for _any_ of his family, ever again.

The walk out to Neil was a lot slower than the walk in had been, and by the time he got to Neil he was almost out of breath. He refused to let the other man see that though, and he forced a lazy grin as he arrived.

Neil looked up at him, relief clear and painful on his face. “Andrew, you’re okay.”

Andrew took out the knife and showed him. “She died the same as the rest of them, Josten.”

Neil didn’t seem to know how to respond to that, but he relaxed back slightly. “She’s gone?”

“For good, Neil.”

Neil swallowed, and then nodded, grimacing slightly as Andrew moved to pick him up again. “What now, then?”

“Now?” Andrew pushed Neil’s hair back, and held him close, ignoring the agony with every step. “We go the fuck _home_ , Neil.”

Neil laughed brightly, an echo of his normal laugh, and wrapped his arms around Andrew’s neck. “Yeah. Yeah, let’s go home.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's a wrap folks! Thank you so much for reading, I really hope you enjoyed it <3

 The Institute seemed to be holding its breath, waiting for Andrew and Neil to get back. Aaron knew that he was, anyway.

When they had arrived back through the portal, Allison had helped them to get Kevin and Renee back, helping to get them stable before returning for Andrew and Neil. She’d been gone for a long time, though, and Aaron could feel himself starting to get restless, impatient. He had paced the room more than once, snapping at anyone who spoke to him until Katelyn put a hand on his arm to calm him.

“Andrew will get him back safe, Aar.”

Aaron shrugged her hand off, but offered her a grateful half-smile; He had no doubt that Andrew would get Neil back safe. Andrew had always been able to take care of the people he cared about, but he had less faith in Andrew’s own self-preservation skills. He supposed that he just had to trust that Neil would take care of Andrew too, as much as he could.

He was pretty sure that Neil would.

Katelyn had pulled him away then, into a quiet room where she distracted him by running a hand through his hair, reading aloud to him. It was her favourite, an anthology of old mundane faerie tales that her mother had bought her when she was a child. She loved the stories, but Aaron loved listening to her speak a lot more. Still, that didn’t stop him from jumping up when he heard commotion in the other room.

“They’re back.”

Katelyn smiled and kissed him on the cheek. “Come on, Andrew will want to check on you.”

Aaron made it to the kitchen in record time, and his heart almost gave out in relief when he saw Neil and Andrew standing there, looking relatively in one piece. Well, he supposed that using the word standing for Neil was a little bit of an overestimate; The man was putting most, if not all of his weight on Andrew, but Andrew was taking it willingly. His face was bandaged now, almost hiding his entire face- the healing process would be painful, even with magic. He looked sickly pale, too, but Aaron knew that he would be okay.

If Andrew wanted him to be okay, he would be.

Andrew was mid story when he, Katelyn and Renee arrived into the room; He seemed to be recounting what had happened after the others had left through the portal, but Aaron could barely hear him over the rushing of blood in his ears. Andrew was home. Andrew was _safe_.

“My father cannot leave his dimension, not in the weakened state that my mother left him in- maybe in the future, but it won’t be for a long time.” Neil was breathless, a slight wheeziness in his voice that Aaron had noticed there before. “He’d need another minion, someone to do his dirty work- Lola was the last one left.”

He looked at Andrew, a twitch of his lips hinting at a smile. “She’s gone now, too.”

When they reached the room Renee was the first to make it to Andrew, but only by a second. Aaron blamed it on the superhuman reflexes. She placed a gentle hand on Andrew’s arm, but Aaron had none of that. He barely gave enough time for Renee to take some of Neil’s weight before he was wrapping Andrew in a bone-crushing hug, one that his brother eventually returned. Aaron pressed his face into the man’s shoulder.

“You took your fucking time, Andrew.”

He felt Andrew chuckle. “Oh, ye of little faith. I’m here now, aren’t I?”

He pulled back, and then looked at Neil, who was smiling faintly. “Are you alright?”

Neil seemed to consider his answer, and then he smiled again. “I expected to die there, so I suppose that I’m doing rather well.”

Andrew stiffened marginally, and Aaron let him go so that he could take Neil again, letting the warlock lean on him heavily. Aaron returned to where Katelyn was waiting for him, and took her hand as he reached her.

Wymack let them enjoy their reunion for a while, until he loudly announced that Andrew and Neil had to get checked for injuries, and that they all needed their sleep. They had earned it, after all. Before Andrew and Neil could be ushered out, though, Nicky got up and crossed the room to them.

Hesitantly, he held a hand out to place on Andrew’s shoulder. He had been distraught while Andrew and Neil had been seemingly MIA, clinging to Erik and checking in with Aaron much too often to be good for either of their stress levels. Still, Aaron was glad to see that most of the tension had left the man’s body.

Andrew glanced at his hand, and then shifted Neil slightly to pull Nicky into a one armed hug- Aaron saw Nicky tear up almost immediately. He hugged Andrew back gently, no doubt not wanting to push the man too far so soon after he had dragged himself back from a demon dimension, but his voice was thick when he spoke.

“I’m really glad you’re okay, Andrew.”

Andrew patted his back gently. “You too.”

Wymack cleared his throat then, and the two men broke apart, letting Abby usher the two men out of the room and into her study and leaving the rest of them in silence again, though it was a much more relieved silence than before. Aaron felt Katelyn tug on his arm.

“Come on, love, you need to sleep.”

Aaron let her pull him, stopping to bump his knuckles against Nicky’s briefly, making the other man smile. Then, Katelyn pulled him away again, leading him to their bedroom and pushing him down on the bed before heading to the shower. Aaron watched her go, and then closed his eyes, relaxing back. They were okay. They were all okay.

 

Andrew hadn’t gotten hurt very badly at all, when he considered how bad things could have gotten. He had gotten off with just a couple of cuts and scrapes, a broken rib or two. Abby had dismissed him with a couple of runes and a disapproving look. He’d gotten worse.

Neil, though, had needed a bit more than an iratze and a lecture. Abby had given him some pills that had made him drowsy, hadn’t trusted him to rest as much as he needed without a little help. Andrew had held his hand while he had fallen asleep and he hadn’t moved from there in the five hours that Neil had been asleep, which was why he was the first to know when Neil’s grip tightened slightly and his eyes fluttered open.

“Andrew?” His voice croaked out and Andrew passed him a glass of water before he could think to ask for one, helping him to tip it into his mouth until he could swallow easier, and try again. “Andrew, you stayed with me.”

“Everyone else was boring me.” In truth, the others had come in more than once to try and persuade Andrew to go to bed, insisting that Neil wouldn’t mind if Andrew decided to take a nap. Andrew hadn’t listened, obviously. He probably needed to work on that.

Neil smiled slightly, and then squeezed his hand again. “How are you feeling?”

“Not bad. Broken rib, nothing even scarred.” Neil flinched at the mention of scars, and Andrew reached up to peel back the bandages a little, exposing angry red burned flesh. His fingers paused, and he swallowed.

“Does it hurt?”

Neil shook his head a little, not wanting to move too much. “Abby helped- I don’t know what she did, but it doesn’t hurt so much.”

Andrew stuck the bandage back down gently, and then shifted, grimacing before he could think to hide it. Instantly, what he could see of Neil’s expression changed, and his voice took on a concerned tone.

“You broke a rib, didn’t you? You let Aaron hug you.” Andrew opened his mouth to argue that he hadn’t let Aaron do anything, before closing it again when Neil corrected himself. “You didn’t stop him from hugging you, at least.”

Andrew shrugged- the movement was stiff, sore. “He needed to.”

Neil laughed, and brushed his lips against Andrew’s knuckles. Andrew felt his chest hurt again, for a whole new reason this time, and he swallowed as Neil looked up at him. “You know, the next time someone calls you a monster, I’m going to have to fight them.”

Andrew pushed his face away gently, but didn’t drop his hand. “You’d be fighting the entire world, Josten.”

Neil smiled then, the kind of smile that could start a war. “You don’t think I could?”

“Oh, I don’t doubt it.  You are an idiot, after all.”

Neil hummed his agreement, and then pushed himself to a sitting position, moving over. “Get in with me?”

Andrew raised an eyebrow. “You’re meant to be resting, Josten.”

“I’ve been told that I have a problem listening to authority.”

“Have you, now.”

Neil nodded and grinned, pulling the blanket down to make more space for Andrew. Andrew sighed, long suffering, and then eased himself into the bed beside him, grunting slightly as he brought his legs up to slide them under the blanket.

After a pause, and a grumbled ‘yes’, Neil moved closer, and rested his head on Andrew’s shoulder gently. “Allison has put me on magic rest for a month.”

“Oh, a tragedy.”

Neil swatted his thigh, and then sighed. “She also said that I can move back in with her, if I wanted.”

Andrew hummed. “Do you? Want to?”

Neil grimaced. “She’s probably my best friend, but… I like staying here.”

“Wymack can’t kick you out either, it’s against the Accords.” At Neil’s dismayed expression, Andrew rolled his eyes. “Relax, Josten, they don’t mind you being here. Nicky would probably cry if you left.”

“Oh, Nicky would, would he?” Neil smirked. “You can just say that you don’t want me to leave, you know.”

“Why the hell would I do that? Some of us aren’t liars.”

“Your whole ‘I hate you’ thing was kind of blown in Columbia, Andrew. Now it’s just plain old denial. It’s not a good look on you.”

Andrew went pink, and then cleared his throat. “Shut up.”

 “Mmhm.” Neil turned his head slightly. “I’m okay with that, though.”

“Me too.” Andrew swallowed, and then shifted slightly. “Neil, yes or no?”

“Yes.” Neil didn’t even have to hesitate.

Andrew turned them slightly so that it would be more comfortable, and then tilted Neil’s head up gently. Neil smiled softly, and closed the distance between them easily, bringing a hand up to Andrew’s jaw and resting it there, leaning into it as much as possible without hurting Andrew. They broke apart soon enough; The kiss was just a reassurance that they both wanted this, and there even _was_ a this. There would be time to kiss later, when they had both recovered enough to actually move around without wincing.

“You should probably sleep, since you’re on bedrest for a while.” Andrew helped Neil to lie back and then, after some deliberation, moved to lie down beside him. His bed was far away, after all. It was just pragmatic to share the bed.

Neil murmured his agreement, and then rested his head on Andrew’s shoulder again. “You too. Did you sleep at all while I was out?”

“No. I will now, though.” Andrew could feel himself starting to settle even as he spoke. He’d probably be asleep within minutes.

“You wanted to talk to me.” Neil grinned, and then turned over a little. “You _like_ me.”

“I do no such thing.”

“Yeah, Yeah. Whatever you say. Goodnight?” Neil pressed a lazy kiss to his shoulder, and closed his eyes.

Andrew forced himself to stop staring at the man who was curled into his side, instead looking up at the ceiling. “Yeah. Goodnight, Josten.”

He didn’t sleep, but after no time at all he felt Neil curling up against his chest. The man was mindful even in sleep not to press too hard on Andrew’s ribs- Andrew huffed and shook his head. The man was a pipedream, but he leaned down anyway to press a kiss to his hair. Neil breathed deeply, and then moved a hand to drape it over Andrew’s torso.

Andrew’s lips twitched and he closed his eyes, trusting that Josten would still be there in the morning.

 

* * *

 

 

_Six months later._

 

Andrew hated patrolling less on quiet nights than on busy ones, but having Neil with him did wonders to make it more bearable. It was annoying, really, just how much it helped to have the other man with him rather than one of the other Shadowhunters.

It wasn’t conventional, allowing Downworlders to patrol alongside Shadowhunters, but it wasn’t as if the Palmetto Institute had ever really been conventional. Neil had taken to it easily though, his hearing and reflexes better than those of the average Warlock even, and his annoying eagerness to help others balanced out Andrew’s not giving a shit perfectly.

Still though, on the quiet nights Andrew appreciated the time alone with him.

Neil flicked his stolen cigarette, bringing it to his lips and inhaling before passing it back. “Crime does sleep sometimes, it seems.”

“Thank the angel for that.” Andrew took the cigarette back and then looked back out over the city from the rooftop they were sitting on, scanning the streets that he could see for any signs of trouble. There weren’t any, though, so he just brought his leg up and took a slow drag. “Are you complaining?”

Neil shook his head and smiled, inching his hand closer to Andrew’s on the concrete, brushing their fingers together. “No.”

Andrew’s jaw clenched slightly, and then he checked his phone. All was quiet, most of them were probably sleeping back at the Institute. “96 percent, Josten.”

Neil laughed quietly. “What happens when I get to one hundred? You take me away on a sun holiday?”

“Or I push you off the roof.”

“Pfft.” Neil slid his hand over on top of Andrew’s and he smirked. “You’d miss me too much if I died.”

“You overestimate how much I care about you, Josten.”

“Do I?” Neil linked their fingers through each other and then leaned over into Andrew’s space, watching for any sign of discomfort before pressing a lingering kiss to Andrew’s cheek. Andrew let him. “I don’t think I do.”

Andrew sighed, and then inhaled again, blowing the smoke out into the night air and leaving their hands joined.

Neil was persistent, though, “Do I overestimate it, Andrew?”

He gritted his teeth and shot Neil an annoyed look. The answer was obvious, after everything, but Neil was still adamant that Andrew say it every once in a while. Bee said it was healthy, and that it was a good thing that Andrew was pushing his boundaries like this. Andrew just thought that it was annoying. “No, you don’t.”

Neil’s answering smile was blinding. “Yes or no?”

“Yes.”

Andrew tugged him into the kiss before Neil could lean in, and it warmed him more than the jacket that Nicky had forced him to wear out on patrol, making his face flush embarrassingly pink. When they broke apart again, Neil ran a thumb along his cheekbone before dropping a kiss there, only making Andrew flush deeper. It was from the cold, he told himself.

Neil pulled away eventually, tucking his legs up under him and watching as people wandered through the streets, making their way home from bars and parties and other things. This was usually when their business started to pick up, when mundanes were drink-stupid and all too eager to walk home alone. Sure enough, after just a couple of minutes of companionable silence, a scream rang out on the southside of the city, and Andrew reached for his daggers.

Neil grinned, and leaned over to catch Andrew’s lips in a kiss quickly before he turned, holding onto the side of the building.

“Duty calls.” He tapped his fingers to his temple in a salute and then let himself drop to the street below, landing gently on the sidewalk below. Andrew sighed and watched his boyfriend vanish into the shadows, before pushing himself forward to join him, climbing down quickly and breaking into a run to catch up.


End file.
